Snow Removal

Every winter the City works to remove snow as quickly and efficiently as possible from both the main streets and residential streets. Normally, the City uses salt for snow removal. In the event of larger snowfalls, the City then resorts to plowing in conjunction with salting. The City’s goal is to provide safe streets for its residents.

Variables

To avoid wasting salt and other City resources the City must remain flexible in the face of varying weather, temperatures, and lengths of storms. Some examples include extremely low temperatures, extended storm periods, high winds, and large snowfalls all of which may reduce the effectiveness of road salt. In these cases efficient plowing becomes more important than salt and salt may only be applied after plowing has concluded and negative variable conditions have subsided. When City crews do plow snow, the plowing cannot remove all the snow covering, leaving behind a light covering of snow. That remaining snow covering is treated with salt, normally at the conclusion of plowing operations.

Low Salt Supply Measures

The City has a limited salt supply which it is constantly monitoring, and immediately orders more salt as it is used. However, there have been (and may be) times when, beyond the City’s control, delivery of salt is slower than the City’s use, and our supply of salt is low. In that event, salting secondary/side streets would be curtailed in favor of the main streets.