Registration for the city of Joliet’s popular winter shoveling service filled up at the fastest rate ever this month, prompting city officials to take a new look at the program.

Registration opened Oct. 1. Within 30 hours, 350 people had applied.

“It’s never done anything close to that in the past,” said Joe Fleischauer, Joliet’s director of neighborhood services.

City officials believe they have funds to cover 330 residences this year.

Interest in the program remains high, even with the application deadline closed.

“We still have people calling about the program,” Fleischauer said. “Just recently, I got 20 calls in three days.”

The program sends contractors to the homes of senior and disabled residents to clear driveways and sidewalks after at least 3 inches of snowfall and up to five times a winter.

The calls keep coming in through the winter, Fleischauer said. People signed up for the program call with questions and to check on when contractors will show up.

The high demand for the service prompted a discussion at the last City Council meeting of possibly expanding the program.

“We have some ideas on how we can get more funding next year so we don’t have to turn anyone away.”

—  Jan Quillman, Joliet City Council member

Mayor Terry D’Arcy suggested that the city find money to cover at least 20 more people for the program this winter.

Joliet historically has used federal Community Development Block Grant funding for the shovel service.

This winter, the city has $44,000 of the federal funds available. The city capped the number of residents in the program at 330, calculating that that was the number that $44,000 would cover.

The 330 people eligible for the program this winter is the same as last year, said Jackie Lozada, who manages CDBG programs for Joliet.

It’s the speed at which the applications came this year that was “astonishing,” Lozada said in an email.

“In the past, we were able to keep the process open for weeks at a time, with the applications and appointments pretty steady and spread throughout,” Lozada said. “This year, we were slammed with the same ... volume of applications in a matter of hours.”

The volume of demand has led to some consideration of switching to a lottery system instead of the first-come, first-served application process the city now uses.

But that, Lozada said, could lead to the city processing two to three times the number of applications only to deny service to hundreds of people who enter a lottery.

Or, the city could find more money for the program.

“We have some ideas on how we can get more funding next year so we don’t have to turn anyone away,” council member Jan Quillman said at the Oct. 6 meeting.

The demand for the program could be a reflection of both growing awareness that the city offers the service and an aging Baby Boomer population, city spokeswoman Rosemaria DiBenedetto said.

There may just be “a larger demographic of seniors that are out there that need this,” DiBenedetto said.

City officials are looking at ways to make the program available to more residents.

Among changes being considered is how registration is done. Currently, it’s on a first-come, first-served basis, meaning anyone applying after the first couple of days this month was already being told no.

Just how many people can be accommodated this year also depends on what contractors bid for the work.

The city is accepting bids until Oct. 28.

“It’s going to depend on how much they can do,” Fleischauer said, “and how much they will charge to do it.”