By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
City crews are working hard to clear city streets but “cannot be everywhere at once,” according to I.D. Creech, public works director for the city of Hays.
After the first round of winter weather dumped 6 inches of snow, last week on the city crews have been busy clearing snow routes, but they won’t clear the side streets.
Creech said the city’s snow removal policy is to only clean the emergency snow routes. There are no plans to clear side streets and residential streets because, he said, “We do not have the resources to address all the neighborhoods.”
He also said crews need places to put the snow, which “is a big problem and a primary reason we do not go into residential areas.”
Crews are spreading salt brine in the residential areas with the anticipation of warmer weather on the way later this week.
Salt brine does not work when the temperatures drop below 15 degrees, and the recent string of extreme cold temperatures has hindered the city’s efforts to clear the snow-packed roadways. Creech also said the snow the area received Sunday night into Monday also slowed efforts to clear the streets because the extra snow will take longer to melt.
Creech said every time it snows crews make an effort to make sure people can get around on the city streets but he said, “our people know that we cannot do all that some would like during a snow event.”
According to Assistant Director of Public Works John Braun:
- City crews started clearing the roads at 8:00 a.m. on Feb. 4 and worked 24 hours a day until Feb. 6
- 580 man hours
- 468 hours of equipment
- 19,300 gallons of salt brine
- 20 ½ tons of sand and salt mix
- 922 gallons of fuel
- The city also hired M&D Excavating and APAC dump trucks to haul off snow in the downtown area
On a statewide basis, the Kansas Department of Transportation said:
- They plowed and treated 565,000
- Used 8,600 tons of salt
- 345,000 gallons of brine
- All at a cost of $3 million