Baker City Manager Barry Murphy is well aware of the slush.

He almost got stuck himself trying to traverse an unplowed residential street recently as warmer temperatures melt the foot or so of snow that fell in the city earlier this month.

“You can barely drive on some of these roads when it gets to that slushy consistency,” Murphy said on Friday, Feb. 21. “I think we need to do something about that.”

The city has fielded multiple complaints from residents about nearly impassable streets.

Murphy, who was hired as city manager in December 2023, emphasized that the city can’t afford to plow all 67 miles of streets after every significant snowstorm.

The $143,000 budget for snow and ice control for the current fiscal year year, which ends June 30, 2025, wouldn’t cover the cost if there were several such storms in one winter, he said.

However, Murphy said thinks the city needs to be more flexible in addressing specific situations — such as the slushy ruts that clogged many streets this week.

This winter, for instance, mild and dry weather dominated until the first week of February.

City crews didn’t plow snow until Feb. 5. And this month they focused on highly traveled routes, as well as streets near the hospital and schools.

And now, with a week left in February, Murphy acknowledged that, based on the local climate, another major snowstorm is possible but not likely.

Which means the snow and ice control budget, part of the street fund, almost certainly has ample money to pay for a citywide plowing.

He’s not planning to order that now, with even warmer temperatures predicted over the next several days.

But Murphy said he plans to look at the city’s plowing criteria for future winters. And if a similar situation arises — a relatively late snowstorm, and with the snow and ice control budget scarcely touched — he said the city should consider plowing residential streets to avoid the mess that marred many streets this week.

“This feels like one of those situations that needlessly makes people mad,” he said.

Murphy didn’t have the estimated cost to plow residential streets.

Joyce Bornstedt, the city’s public works director, wasn’t available Friday morning.

Murphy said that although he endorses the idea that the city should plow residential streets to avoid the slush pitfall when there’s ample money in the budget and it’s late enough in the winter that multiple subsequent storms aren’t likely, plowing carries a potential cost beyond the immediate expense.

When the city doesn’t spend the entire snow and ice control budget — in fiscal 2022-23, for instance, another relatively mild winter, the city spent $76,000 — some of the money can potentially be used for other street work, such chip-sealing and repaving.

The bottom line, Murphy said, is that the city’s traditional practice isn’t serving city residents as well as it could, and he’d like to see that change.

“We want to be more flexible, that’s the main thing,” he said.