COLORADO SPRINGS, CO – Colorado Springs’ snow-removal process could get a little quicker. The City made an agreement last week with El Paso County, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette. The deal allows the City and County to use each other’s fleet maintenance facilities for parts, repair work, or fuel during emergencies. While this covers instances from floods to terrorist attacks, it’s expected to come into play most often during snowstorms.

Colorado Springs has two facilities where it fixes and fuels its vehicles, and the county has a main facility, a satellite station, and a garage for smaller cars. Currently, if a city snowplow breaks down or runs out of fuel on the east side, a mobile service or fuel truck must cross town to help. Under the new agreement, if the plow can get to a county facility, the County will take care of it and get it back out on the road more quickly.

City Fleet Manager Tom Monarco said he expects the agreement will come into play later this winter. “Our biggest issue is that once the vehicles and plows are out there, we want to make sure they stay out there,” Monarco said, as quoted in the Colorado Springs Gazette.

The agreement covers any service that fleet maintenance handles, from fueling to replacing spark plugs to fixing engines. It outlines that the governmental entities must repay each other for the cost of parts or fuel but not for labor. It also addresses two issues central to the governments: a push for continuity of services in case of a disaster and an effort to get the City and County working together on more projects to cut costs.

County Fleet Manager Praim Mangar noted that he and Monarco also teamed up on a diesel fuel contract that fixes the 2007 price at $2.097 a gallon — 25 cents below current rates. The agreement allows the city to defer construction of a new fleet maintenance facility on the north or east side of town.