If you live in Rochester year-round and you like to get around, thank Karen St. Aubin.

She’s the Director of Operations for the City of Rochester’s Department of Environmental Services, and for nearly a decade she’s been the woman calling the shots regarding snow removal and the salting of icy streets, as well as many other year-round responsibilities involved in maintaining the city’s roads and sidewalks.

Anyone whose line of work has them paying close attention to the capriciousness of the weather tends to speak about the forces of nature like a formidable foe. And on one particularly freezing January day, St. Aubin sounded like a general holed up in the Situation Room — which would be her office at the city’s Operation Center on Mt. Read Blvd.

“I have a playbook for everything,” she said. “We're very methodical, we have a plan for every issue that occurs. You never want to let the storm get ahead of you.”

She releases the plow teams that remove snow from approximately 530 miles of roadway and 1150 lane miles. She handles the city’s annual budget for salt, which can be as much as $1 million, depending on the severity of snow events. She makes the decisions about when to call in subcontractors to assist the city fleet, and when the collection of refuse and recycling needs to be delayed. That delay has happened just once this winter, due to unseasonably warm weather.

“Conditions change, and we just adapt,” St. Aubin said. “And we don't go home. That's what I tell everybody. We're not going home.”



St. Aubin recalled once working out of her office for 28 hours straight while managing her team through a storm.

“We watch everything electronically so we know where there could be a challenge," she said. "We also work with 311 — if they're getting particular calls in a certain area, we respond to the problems."

Rochesterians like to say there are two seasons: snow and construction. That means the DES director of ops wears more than one hat.

“I'm responsible for a group of about 250 people, closer to 300 in the summer,” St. Aubin said. “We take care of a lot of the city services. . . . Special Services takes care of all the set up and teardown of every festival, every party, every everything that goes on in the summertime. All the street sweeping that goes on.”

In addition to personnel, there are more than 150 pieces of equipment that St. Aubin oversees — equipment put into action when snow removal is required.

“When heavy snow falls, if you have a blade, it’s down,” she said.

But even during relatively temperate winter seasons like the current one, there’s a level of vigilance that needs to be in place. Our local lakes complicate already complicated weather patterns, and storm systems appear out of thin air. Today, the birds may be chirping cheerfully in the sun, but within a few days Rochester could get a blizzard. So St. Aubin’s office is poised throughout the season.

“We’re the first responders for the first responders,” she said. “We have to keep everything clear so medical can get through, so that fire — any emergency — can get through the streets. And we take that very seriously.”

St. Aubin’s work in emergency response runs deep. She got her start in civil service in the late 1970s as an emergency telephone operator for the Rochester Police Department.

“You would take the call — and that's what I did — and if it was an emergency it would be handwritten on one color card, and if it was a routine, it went on another,” she said. “And then it had a track that drove into the dispatch, they’d dispatch that out.”
She moved through a few other civil service posts before landing in the Water Bureau.

“And in 1988, they made me into management, which was unheard of back then,” she said. “There weren't any females, let alone females in management.”

But St. Aubin describes her work with an enthusiasm that suggests she has fun taking charge amidst chaos and is proud of the people she oversees.

“Each team wants their route to be the best,” she said. "They take a lot of pride in what they do. They can really move a mountain.”
St. Aubin’s office also oversees the new collaboration between the city, Regional Transit Services, and Center for Employment Opportunities to make sure bus shelters are shoveled out and accessible.

There are, of course, ways that city residents can help during emergency situations.

“Rochester has a high percentage of streets with on-street parking,” St. Aubin said. “When heavy snow falls, give plows room on the roads, or stay in if you can while we deal with the mess.”

It also helps the plow teams if residents pay attention to where they’re parked.

“One car out of place can really mess up a block,” St. Aubin said.

HELPFUL TIPS:
City residents can participate in the “Adopt a Hydrant” program by signing up to claim a hydrant at cityofrochester.gov/adoptahydrant. Then keep the hydrant clear of snow and debris, so emergency services can access it.

St. Aubin is aware that people can get annoyed when they’ve done the work to shovel out their driveways, only to be buried again when the city plow service comes through.

She said that a useful tool for city residents is a public interface available on the dot gov website called Plow Trax (cityofrochester.gov/PlowTrax), which shows what mode of service each street is in. On that site, streets change colors to show in real time what areas are untouched, being plowed, plowed, salted, etc.

“Watch where we are, so you’ll only have to shovel once,” she said.

Rebecca Rafferty is CITY's life editor. She can be reached at [email protected].