As Anchorage received its first significant snowfall of the season, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration unveiled a new website Tuesday to track the community's plowing progress.

The Anchorage Snow Plow Updates website at muni.org/plow is intended to be a one-stop shop for real-time information about which streets, sidewalks and neighborhoods have been plowed or have not yet been plowed.

“We can’t control the weather, but we can control our preparation and communications,” LaFrance wrote in a statement.

The new website essentially collects in one place information that was mostly already available in previous years, with a few additional tools. On a desktop or mobile device, people can see which sidewalks have been cleared, which neighborhoods are being plowed, report a blocked bus stop, and request the removal of a driveway embankment for elderly and disabled residents.

(The first major snowfall of the season is littering roads and causing Anchorage schools to move to remote learning)

The website is not perfect and is treated as a work in progress by its designers. The Snow Solutions team, led by City Manager Becky Windt Pearson, worked with the city's innovation team to complete the new tool in time for winter, which arrived a little earlier than usual this year. But the administration rolled it out after this week's snowfall, hoping to keep the site up and get feedback on bugs and possible improvements to refine it in the coming months.

“When we can provide reliable and consistent communications, we give residents the information they need to be involved in snow preparation and response,” Windt Pearson wrote in a statement.

The city plans to eventually install GPS devices and monitoring systems on its graders so residents can track where the fleet is being used. However, this feature will not be available for a few weeks, probably in December.

One of LaFrance's key campaign promises was to improve the city's response to winter weather after two consecutive exceptionally snowy years during Mayor Dave Bronson's administration. The Bronson administration has been criticized for its handling of city labor and plowing equipment, which contributed to delays in clearing residential streets after heavy snowfalls.

Since taking office this summer, top members of the new government have coordinated with department heads and partner agencies on how to improve plowing. They have also taken measures such as putting more money into the budget to repair heavy equipment and purchasing new graders and other vehicles to bolster the municipal fleet.

There is a link at the bottom of the main page of the Anchorage Snow Plow Updates website where you can submit feedback and ideas for improvement.