City plows street for the first time

Thursday morning?s snowfall might have set a record. The record was not the amount of snowfall ? for it was no more than a few inches ? but rather that it was the first time this winter city crews have moved snow. City maintenance and construction director J.J. Bell has worked for the city for 15 years and said he cannot remember another year when the first major snow event happened so late in the season.

Bell said there were only two winter events in December, neither of which produced enough snow to merit plowing.

?It has to snow at least 2 inches for us to plow,? he said. ?We did go out and salt the roads for those two events, though. Today was the first time we?ve had to push the snow from curb to curb or clean the square, which is amazing.?

The city normally budgets between 200 and 250 tons of street salt each year. Before Thursday?s snowfall, the city had used only 11 tons of salt. A ton of salt costs about $75, Bell said.

?We?re doing much better than normal on the salt,? Bell said. ?And in another month, we?ll be halfway through winter.?

The lack of snow removal has meant the city has saved money on salt, labor and fuel. Bell said the city uses eight or nine pieces of equipment to plow during each winter event. He estimated that the city spends $1,200 to $1,400 on fuel alone each time the city has to plow the roads.

Labor costs can become quite high, too, depending on when the workers are called out to plow. City employees are paid their normal wage if they are removing snow between the hours of 7 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Snow can come at any day of the week and at any hour of the day, including nights and weekends. Employees are paid overtime when they remove snow after hours.

Temperatures in the 40s, 50s and even 60s were seen throughout December and earlier this month. Bell said this allowed him and his staff to continue projects that would have been much more difficult if not impossible in prior years.

?Last month, we put in 175 feet of storm sewer since it was so nice outside,? he said. ?We got a lot accomplished this past fall.?

Despite the year?s warm ending, the city experienced a record number of main breaks in 2011.

?We had 41 main breaks last year,? Bell said. ?Normally they happen in winter because of the freeze-and-thaw cycle, but last year they happened throughout the year. Most of the breaks were not because of freezing and thawing. A lot of them happened after Easter.?

The maintenance and construction department normally begins preparing its fleet of vehicles for winter in early November. By Thanksgiving, it has transitioned its vehicle for winter uses, such as by attaching plows to the pickups.

?We don?t want to get caught with our hands in our pockets when the first snow comes,? Bell said.