(Washington, DC) Emphasizing employee teamwork, neighborhood cooperation and safety, Mayor Anthony A. Williams this morning greeted employees from the city's Departments of Transportation and Public Works, the frontline troops for snow clearing in the District.

"I cannot thank you enough for what you do," said Mayor Williams. "Last year, you rose to the challenge of the President's Day storm with skill, dedication, initiative and perseverance. I know that the fine work of the DDOT/DPW team will continue as we face this year's challenges."

Joining Mayor Williams at the Washington Convention Center were Dan Tangherlini and Leslie Hotaling, directors of the Departments of Transportation and Public Works, respectively. They stressed that the cooperative working relationships developed over the years between DDOT and DPW will continue this year. They also pointed to a number of improvements for the 2003-2004 snow season. These include new weather stations and closed circuit cameras and Automatic Vehicle Locators (AVL), which will give realtime positions of vehicles as they plow their routes.

Labor leaders Joslyn Williams, President, Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO, Jerry Hackney, President, AFGE, Local 1975 and James Ivey, AFSCME, Local 2091, also participated. They stressed the importance of labor-management teamwork and workplace safety during snow clearing.

The snow program has also published a new snow brochure that reminds people not to park on snow emergency routes, to put shoveled snow into the tree box (not in the street) and to please be patient, particularly during and after a major storm.