• During or following a snow event, the city's first priority is to clear roads. Then crews are dispatched to other parts of the city, including downtown.
• The downtown crew's first priority is to clear the sidewalks around public buildings, such as city hall and the police station, as well as public parking lots and decks.
• Their next priority is to clear the crosswalks of intersections and other public spaces, such as DuPage Court, Festival Park and the sidewalks on the bridges.
• Once all these areas are cleared, the crew will then clear any remaining sidewalk areas until their shift ends at 3PM. The city also utilizes community restitution workers to supplement the workforce when possible.

We would like to suggest that downtown business and property owners have your sidewalks cleared from property line to curb line by 9AM following an overnight snow event, as this is the time that the majority of downtown is "open for business." This will help to reduce the areas of packed down snow, lessening the chances of it turning to impassable ice, and increasing our downtown's walkability and safety.

You may pile your snow on the curb line using the row of brick pavers along the curb line as a guide. Please do not throw the snow into the street.

The city's goal is to remove the piled snow from the curb line within 72 hours of a major event. This is usually done from 4 to 6AM. However, if we have frequent events within days of each other, the city's response time will be delayed, resulting in large mounds of snow on the curb line. The city will remove it - it will just take longer.

We highly encourage you to talk with your neighbors about contracting a private snow removal company for your block or sharing in the responsibility of shoveling your block. This will help to alleviate one of the problems that we saw last year. For example, if 6 of the 8 properties on a block were cleared, the 2 that were not cleared reflected poorly not only on that business but on the whole block. The packed down snow that eventually became ice was not only uninviting but also very dangerous.

We would like to make special mention to those realtors and brokers who represent downtown properties that are available for sale or lease. Please work with your clients to be sure that the sidewalks outside these properties are taken care of.

Lastly, though we have lifted the overnight parking ban from downtown streets, please refrain from parking overnight when two or more inches of snowfall are expected.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call  DNA at (847) 488-1456 or Jim Bell at the City of Elgin at (847) 931-6124.

For questions or concerns during a snow event, contact the city's 24 hour Snow Command Center by calling 847-931-5977 or by emailing the Snow Command Center at snowcommand@cityofelgin.org.