Winter Maintenance Summary

With the winter of 2010-2011 being one of the worst on record, 2011-2012 was without a doubt one of the mildest. Attached to the case is a comparison of the two seasons. In the 2011-2012 season there were four 2” snow events and one 6”-8”event that took two days to clean up. The last storm consisted of several false start times from the weather service, combined with high moisture content to make for a very frustrating time for everybody. Most drivers compared it to plowing concrete. People I spoke with in surrounding communities dealt with the same problems, late start, heavy snow and equipment breakdowns. The two equipment breakdowns that delayed plowing for us were a broken serpentine belt and a hydraulic hose rupture on separate trucks. Not big ticket items, but time consuming. Most of the complaints received during the storm were related to plowing time. With the combination of problems mentioned above, some areas weren’t plowed out till late afternoon. Overall for the season we had approximately 75 calls with probably 60 coming from the last snow fall. The breakdown of calls for the year was:

6-Mailbox damage
8- Sod damage
61-Misc. The majority of these calls came in the last event and were questions about when plowing would be done, why is plowing taking so long, etc…

For the 2012-2013 we will be making some changes to the plowing program. Some route changes will be made to speed up the plowing in the COR area, seasonal help will plow a majority of the trail system and contracted services will be used around the Municipal Center and possibly the fire stations. One other possible change would be the introduction of an Automatic Vehicle Location (AVL)  system for the plow fleet.   The biggest change though is the salt shed will be full at the beginning of the season, and that is a first for us!

N/A

Informational only

Based on discussion