AKRON, Ohio — For the second day in a row, a number of Akron school buses got stuck while picking up students for school Thursday morning.
Eight Akron school buses were stuck Thursday morning, according to Mark Williamson, director of marketing communications for Akron City Schools.
The buses were stuck on the following streets Thursday morning: Palisades Drive, Olalia, 27th Street, Silvercrest Avenue, two on North Arlington, Faye Road and W North Road. The bus on 27th Street was stuck for about an hour.
Twelve buses were stuck in the snow on Wednesday morning. Williamson said Wednesday that the district has its own tow trucks that were able to get the buses out of the snow.
Later that day, the City of Akron released an apology which read, in part:
We apologize to the Akron community for the inconvenience and frustration our response has caused. The level of service we provided has fallen short of what our residents rightly expect.
Read the full statement here.
Akron's Deputy Service Director Chris Ludle said, as of Thursday, all streets in the city have been cleared at least once and crews were double-checking to make sure nothing was missed.
"Moving forward, we're gonna change some of the things we do, but if we knew everything we did wrong now-- we're still evaluating-- we wouldn't have made those mistakes on Saturday," Ludle said.
Ludle said seven private contractors were brought in Tuesday to help plow streets, but in hindsight, feels the extra help should have been requested sooner.
He also indicated Akron may consider entering into a mutual aid agreement with nearby cities in the event of a major storm.
With the possibility of a couple more inches of snow this weekend, Ludle said crews will do everything possible to be better prepared.
"We're gonna keep after it. The colder temperatures, we're looking at different products, calcium, to apply to the the roads to keep them open and flowing," he said. "Moving forward, we're gonna try not to ever let this happen again."
