CONNOQUENESSING — It’s never too early to think about snow in Western Pennsylvania.

The borough council is putting the contract for its snow removal out to bid in the near future, it was announced at the council’s monthly meeting on Tuesday night, Aug. 6.

“We’re reviewing the contract,” said Councilman Jason Spear. “We’re making necessary changes before the contract goes out.”

The matter of snow removal was the subject of intense debate at a borough council meeting in February, when multiple residents lodged complaints about the quality of the contractor who won the bid to remove snow in the borough for the winter 2023-24 period.

In light of the experience last year, the borough council proposed making some amendments to the contract which will be put up for bid. One suggestion was to double the amount of salt which the contractor would use to treat the roads.

Residents complained that the contractor failed to apply adequate amounts of salt after one snowstorm, while also failing to put the blade of the snowplow all the way to the surface of the roads.

Borough secretary Vickie Forbes said the borough consulted with Forward Township for advice on how to write up the snow removal contract.

“We needed to actually double the salt,” Forbes said. “The salt was contracted for 500 pounds per mile. It should have been 500 pounds per lane-mile.”