The Highway Department: Challenges, Responsibilities and the Work Behind Our Community
The Highway Department: The Work Behind Keeping Cornwall Moving
What Does a Highway Department Actually Do?
For many residents, the answer might simply be snowplowing roads, filling potholes, or repairing streets. In reality, the Highway Department is responsible for a much broader range of services that residents depend on every day, often without realizing how much work happens behind the scenes.
In the Town of Cornwall, the Highway Department, together with Sanitation and Buildings & Grounds, supports roads, drainage systems, municipal facilities, public property, stormwater infrastructure, snow and ice operations, equipment, and emergency response. With 25 employees across these operations, the department carries a substantial responsibility for maintaining essential municipal infrastructure and keeping the community functioning throughout the year.
Drainage and Stormwater: A Growing Responsibility
One of the department’s less visible—but increasingly important—responsibilities is drainage and stormwater management.
The Highway Department is responsible for storm drain maintenance, catch basin cleaning, culvert maintenance, ditch restoration, drainage pipe installation and repair, erosion control, flooding response, and drainage-related emergency repairs.
The Town’s responsibilities under New York State Department of Environmental Conservation requirements add another layer of work. Municipalities covered by the MS4 permit are required to operate a Stormwater Management Program addressing areas such as public education, illicit discharge detection, construction-site runoff, post-construction stormwater management, and pollution prevention and good housekeeping for municipal operations.
For the Highway Department, that translates into ongoing work. Stormwater infrastructure must be inspected and maintained, records kept, problems investigated, and potential sources of pollution addressed.
More Than 750 Catch Basins
One of the clearest examples of the challenge is the Town’s network of more than 750 catch basins.
Catch basins collect sediment, leaves, trash, and other pollutants. Keeping them clean is an important part of maintaining the stormwater system and helping prevent pollutants from reaching local waterways.
The challenge is that the Town’s existing street sweeper was not designed specifically to efficiently vacuum and remove material from such a large number of catch basins. Some are also beyond the practical reach of the sweeper’s vacuum equipment. This creates a significant workload for Highway Department employees and makes timely maintenance more difficult.
The Town has applied for grant funding for a dedicated vacuum truck designed specifically for catch basin and stormwater infrastructure maintenance. This is the third consecutive year the Town has applied for the funding.
A dedicated vacuum truck could help crews remove sediment, leaves, trash, and other pollutants; reach difficult locations; improve efficiency; reduce labor demands; and strengthen the Town’s ability to meet its MS4 stormwater responsibilities.
A Facility That No Longer Matches the Job
Another major challenge is the condition and size of the Highway Department’s facilities.
The existing highway garage was designed for a much smaller operation and is now significantly undersized for the Town’s fleet and current operational needs. The Highway Department currently has 18 vehicles, while the existing garage can accommodate only four vehicles indoors. That leaves approximately 14 vehicles and pieces of equipment outside throughout the year.
Among the equipment stored outside are front-end loaders, a backhoe, skid steers, dump trucks, and other highway vehicles.
Exposure to snow, ice, rain, road salt, and temperature changes can accelerate deterioration of expensive municipal equipment. Outdoor storage can also make inspections, repairs, maintenance, and preparation more difficult.
The issue becomes even more important during winter storms and emergencies. Equipment needs to be inspected, serviced, fueled, loaded, and deployed quickly. Having appropriate indoor space can make these operations more efficient while providing employees with a safer environment in which to work.
The Highway garage on Rte. 32 needs considerable work and it is front and center of the town’s capital plan. Deputy Supervisor McCarty, Highway Supervisor Tom Gshwind and the Town’s engineering firm having been tasked with finding a suitable location, whether it’s upgrading the existing property off Route 32, or acquiring a new property.
Protecting the Municipal Fleet
The equipment challenge extends beyond the Highway Department.
The Sanitation Department operates six garbage trucks, but its existing garage cannot accommodate the entire fleet. Two spare trucks must be stored outside even though they remain important municipal assets that need to be maintained and ready for service when primary vehicles are unavailable.
The Town also faces the ongoing reality of aging equipment. For the 2027 budget year, the Highway Department is planning to replace a 1996 single-axle dump truck, a 2006 rack truck, and a 2010 single-axle dump truck with wing plow. Buildings & Grounds is also planning to replace a 2013 landscape trailer. Equipment replacement represents a substantial investment in the town’s infrastructure. The 2023 replacement program was $1,004,083 while the 2025 replacement plan included $1.255 million in planned equipment replacement across, Highway, Sanitation and Building and Grounds. Retired equipment is auctioned and sold through Absolute Auctions & Realty.
Replacing aging vehicles is necessary, but new equipment alone does not solve the underlying facility problem. The Town could invest in new vehicles while continuing to lack adequate space to protect and maintain them.
A Highway Garage and Municipal Operations Complex could address several of these infrastructure needs together rather than continuing to make piecemeal repairs to facilities that are already inadequate.
Salt Storage and Fueling Infrastructure
Winter operations depend heavily on the Town’s ability to store and manage road salt and other materials.
The existing salt barn is old and significantly undersized for current needs. It also needs to be evaluated against current New York State Department of Environmental Conservation requirements. Adequate salt storage is important not only for maintaining roads during winter weather, but also for handling and protecting materials appropriately.
The Town’s fueling infrastructure presents another challenge. Existing underground fuel tanks are more than 30 years old and have become an increasing maintenance, environmental, and regulatory concern.
A new highway complex would replace the aging underground tanks with a modern above-ground fueling system, making inspections, monitoring, maintenance, and eventual replacement more manageable.
The Responsibilities Residents May Not See
Highway Department responsibilities extend well beyond traditional road work.
The department’s broader operational responsibilities include fleet and machinery maintenance, equipment inspections, fuel management, inventory tracking, work-order management, materials procurement, contractor coordination, infrastructure inspections, public-service request responses, safety training, budget development, and long-term capital improvement planning.
There are also responsibilities involving public property and municipal facilities, including sidewalks, curbs, parking lots, public buildings, municipal garages, grounds, parks, recreation facilities, trees, landscaping, and other public spaces.
Emergency response adds another dimension. Highway personnel may be called upon for flooding, storm damage, fallen trees, emergency drainage repairs, roadway hazards, infrastructure failures, and disaster cleanup. They may also provide support to other municipal departments during emergencies.
Doing More With Existing Infrastructure
Perhaps the central challenge facing the Highway Department is that its responsibilities have grown while some of the infrastructure and equipment supporting those responsibilities have not kept pace.
The department must maintain roads and drainage systems, respond to winter storms, protect municipal equipment, manage materials, address stormwater requirements, maintain public property, respond to emergencies, and plan for future equipment replacement.
At the same time, it is working with facilities designed for a smaller operation, aging equipment, limited indoor storage, an undersized salt barn, aging underground fuel tanks, and equipment that is not ideally suited to some of the Town’s stormwater maintenance requirements.
The result is an operational challenge that is about much more than buildings or equipment. It affects how efficiently employees can perform their jobs, how quickly the Town can respond to emergencies, how well municipal assets can be protected, and how effectively the community can maintain its infrastructure over the long term.
Planning for the Future
The Highway Department’s responsibilities are not simply about responding to today’s problems. They also require anticipating what the Town will need in the future.
A properly designed Highway Garage and Municipal Operations Complex could be built around the Town’s current fleet, anticipated equipment replacements, winter operations, sanitation needs, fueling requirements, salt and material storage, maintenance activities, and future growth.
The same principle applies to stormwater infrastructure. Maintaining more than 750 catch basins is a substantial undertaking, and the Town’s application for a dedicated vacuum truck reflects the need to match equipment with the work employees are expected to perform.
Why the Highway Department Matters
The Highway Department is one of those municipal services residents often notice most when something goes wrong.
A road needs repair. A storm blocks a roadway. Snow and ice make travel dangerous. A drainage system fails. A tree falls. A catch basin becomes clogged.
Behind each of those situations is a team responsible for assessing the problem, deploying equipment and personnel, making repairs, maintaining infrastructure, and preparing for the next challenge.
The Highway Department’s responsibility is ultimately about keeping the community moving, safe, functional, and prepared. Its work touches roads, stormwater, snow removal, emergency response, municipal equipment, public property, and the infrastructure residents rely on every day.
The challenges facing the department are significant, but so is the scope of the work it performs. Understanding those responsibilities provides a clearer picture of why adequate facilities, appropriate equipment, ongoing maintenance, and long-term planning are important to the Town of Cornwall’s future.