What would Lexington mayor candidates to do fix city’s snow, ice response?
In early 2025, Winter Storm Blair covered Lexington in snow and ice for weeks after intense precipitation and a long string of days below freezing temperature.
Lexington struggled to keep streets clear in the novel storm, but promised to do better in the future.
A year later, Winter Storm Fern brought the same set of conditions to the city. Lexington did not do better at keeping roads clear, causing more frustration among city residents and causing Fayette County Public Schools to cancel in-person classes for two weeks.
Then in March, a flash freeze event early in the morning led to over 150 car collisions.
Public criticism over the response to these winter weather events led to big changes in Mayor Linda Gorton’s administration. Her commissioner of environmental services, Nancy Albright, resigned after the March freeze event, and Gorton has promised to “tear up” the city’s existing winter weather plan.
Gorton is rebuilding the city’s snow and ice plan, but other candidates for mayor have said her administration’s failed response is unacceptable.
Five of the seven candidates for mayor, including Gorton, told the Herald-Leader what they will do to ensure an effective winter response in the future.
Skip Horine and Rama Asmani did not respond to the Herald-Leader’s primary election questions.
Linda Gorton: We are already making strides on rebuilding the plan
Soon after Winter Storm Fern, Gorton commissioned an after-action review of the city’s response to identify what went well and what didn’t.
That review identified six main failures of the response. Those takeaways are informing her staff’s work to rewrite the winter weather plan in its entirety.
“Clearly, we must adapt to weather patterns we and other cities are not used to,” she told the Herald-Leader. “I expect to see a plan that is more modernized, efficient and increases communication with the public.”
That plan will seek to make “better internal and external communications, improved training and cross-training of drivers, a reevaluation of our strategy for plowing roads, full activation of our Emergency Operation Center, increased numbers of available heavy trucks and equipment, and improved logistics for moving salt and Beet Heet,” Gorton said.
Gorton has also included over $5 million in her proposed city budget to address winter weather. That will help the city purchase more trucks and salt, and will support several new contracting agencies the city will call on in case of a major event.
The Emergency Operation Center will also include more representation from important local agencies, such as Fayette County Public Schools and Lextran, to ensure a collaborative response to any weather emergencies.
Raquel Carter: ‘I will be a present leader’
Raquel Carter’s vision for an improved winter plan is similar to Gorton’s.
Carter would make sure the right equipment for storms is in place, that road treatment starts early and gets more intense as weather intensifies, and she would collaborate with other agencies and weather experts to create a coordinated response plan.
She said she would also implement snow plow tracking and reporting data that shows residents which streets have been treated, how they have been treated and where trucks are currently located.
“This approach moves us from reactive coordination to an integrated system that responds faster, communicates clearly, and keeps residents safer and informed,” she said.
“And most importantly,” she added, “I will be a present leader and on the scene for major operational responses like the ones we have experienced.”
C.E. Huffman: Prioritize Lextran and FCPS bus routes
C.E. Huffman said the city’s snow plow routes should “focus on keeping all Lextran routes as clear as possible” so buses do not have to pause or reduce service during an emergency.
“By using city services to focus on public transit routes, we have a direct strategy that helps keep the city’s core operational during emergencies,” he said.
Contractors should also be used to work in neighborhoods and to clear roads and sidewalks connected to Fayette County Public Schools. Huffman specifically highlighted what he saw as a lack of coordination between the city and the school system during Winter Storm Fern.
“At no time did I see the Mayor and Superintendent in the room at the same time,” he said. “So how can anyone expect seamless coordination when there is a lack of communication between the two largest governing authorities?”
Darnell Tagaloa: ‘Leadership requires accountability’
Darnell Tagaloa said the city’s snow plan was “a good starting point” rather than a “fully-developed plan.”
He told the Herald-Leader he would have a more proactive response to winter weather, including pre-treating roads early, determining how much staff is needed ahead of the arrival of any given storm and establishing cleared points of contact between drivers and supervisors.
He would also have a post-event evaluation within five days of each winter event. Those evaluations would measure how the city did and outline immediate steps for improvement that could be built upon throughout each winter season.
If those steps didn’t work, he said, “I would have taken responsibility for where we fell short as a city and used that to improve our response moving forward.”
“Leadership requires accountability.”
Greg O’Neal: Drivers should be better trained
Greg O’Neal did not provide thorough answers to the Herald-Leader about how he would handle future weather events.
He did highlight the need for increased training for drivers, as he did in a previous mayoral forum.
“I would have implemented training for snow removal personnel in place prior to the storms,” he said.
Such training exists, although the mayor’s after-action review did identify gaps in training for how drivers should handle ice events.
O’Neal also said he would expand the city’s contracts with outside companies to help staff winter emergency responses.
This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
