New Philadelphia’s service director this week warned council that the 2026 projected budget is not going to be enough to fund his department’s needs, including summer paving.
Service Director Ron McAbier says the general services department has done more with less, including using a fleet of old and unsafe trucks, some of which he called Frankenstein vehicles because they’re made from parts of other trucks.
He says one of those trucks caught fire while plowing snow a few weeks ago.
“We consider ourselves extremely lucky. That could have been a lot worse. Could have been a fatality there, and we’re lucky it was on Tech Park Drive and it was out in an area where no other vehicles were around.”
The general services division has plenty of other needs, too. He says they’re using old, unsafe vehicles that date back to the 1990s or are pieced together from parts of other trucks. McAbier says the city was not properly equipped for January’s big snowstorm.
“Usually for snow like that we have about 13 trucks out, we had seven. To me unacceptable just for the simple fact that you’re not giving service that we’re supposed to be providing for the citizens to be able to get out there on safe, clean streets in a timely manner.”
McAbier adds the city will also have to start replacing outdated traffic lights. He also doesn’t think he will be able to pave any streets this summer.
“We’ve probably got enough to do about two alleys this year. We’ve got to buy salt. We’ve got to buy hot mix to fill the holes. We’ll have to continue to patch.”
New Philadelphia City Council meets twice in March as it works to finalize the annual budget by the end of the month.
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