A prolonged snowstorm that sent vehicles sliding off Medford streets last week has prompted city officials to look at adding more snowplows.

“It’s been a pretty mighty, hands-on-deck event,” Rob Fields, city manager, said at Wednesday’s Medford City Council meeting as snowy and icy roadways caused transportation problems around the city.

John Vial, city Public Works director, told the council that there could be upcoming discussions about adding two more snowplows to deal with heavy snowstorms.

The city has three snowplow/sander combination trucks, two dedicated sanders, one snowplow and one grader that help reopen 250 miles of roadway inside city limits.

Sanding roadways helps provide extra traction, Vial said.

“Our city didn’t have any snowplows before 2021,” he said.

Vial said the question the city needs to determine is whether it’s a good investment to have more snowplows for these once-in-a-decade-type snow events.

Snowplow blades are attached to a truck, and the truck can be used for other purposes during the rest of the year.

The snowstorm, which began last Monday morning and continued for much of the week, dropped 2 to 3 inches of snow throughout the city by the afternoon. “A lot of motorists slid off the road,” Vial said. “I don’t want to be critical of people, but I’ve never ceased to be amazed at how you can look down a hill and see cars all crisscrossed and say, ‘Oh I can make it.’”

So many vehicles along the roadway hampered efforts to remove snow. “We spent a lot of time unplugging these roadways,” Vial said.

The city’s first priority in a severe snow event is to remove snow from main streets in the city, known as arterials, such as McAndrews Road, Barnett Road, Central Avenue, Riverside Avenue, Main Street, Columbus Avenue and routes leading to hospitals.

The next priority is to clear snow from so-called collector streets such as Sunrise Avenue, Springbrook Road, Spring Street, Ross Lane, Lozier Lane and Hillcrest Road.

Residential streets that connect to other streets are the next priority, followed by smaller residential streets and cul-de-sacs.

“In some cases, we don’t plow cul-de-sacs,” Vial said.

The turning radiuses in cul-de-saces are often too tight for city trucks, and it’s also difficult to push snow off the roadway for fear of blocking driveways, he said.

Public Works crews worked shifts to provide round-the-clock coverage to clear streets. “Our crews are doing well, but getting kind of grouchy,” Vial said Wednesday.

More than 200 hours of overtime were logged by his crews, he said.

Mayor Mike Zarosinski wondered how the city would fare in a longer snow event.

Vial said, “If this was a three-week storm, we would be hurting.”

Councilor Kevin Stine asked Vial if his department had enough staff to run more snowplows.

Vial said he did have enough staff, and that the staff is trained for a variety of tasks, including operating a snowplow or sander.

Kristina Wilson, the city’s communications and marketing manager, said she experienced an uptick in subscribers to receive text and email alerts from people who wanted information about the snowstorm.

The city manages seven social media platforms to get the word out.

“We’ve added 940 followers since Monday,” she said at Wednesday’s meeting. “People are grateful at all the work of Public Works.”

Councilor Nick Card said streets seemed pretty clear on his travels around the city in the middle of last week.

As he looked around the valley, Card said, “Medford is by far the shining star on the hill when it comes to the response for this.”