City, county working to clear roads from massive snowfall

Efforts continue across the Red Oak community and the county to dig out from one of the largest snowfall events the area has faced for several years.
Red Oak street superintendent Chris Baird said the snow events, which took place Tuesday into Wednesday and then again Thursday through Sunday, is one for his personal record books.
“I’d say in my 24 years here, it’s probably the most snowfall we’ve received in one week that we’ve had to deal with. The wind after the snow quit was just non-stop. We had to try to keep the east-west roads open. If we didn’t, once they got shut with snowfall, we don’t have the equipment to get them open again. We were basically running equipment non-stop on the north side of town around Montgomery County Memorial Hospital, Alix, Senate, Ratcliff Road, and the emergency routes,” Baird commented.
While the snow has been plentiful, and the temperatures bitterly cold, Baird said the city’s equipment is sound.
“Mechanically, we’ve made it through so far. We’re still hauling a lot of snow, and we haven’t had any breakdowns. We’ve put in a lot of fuel additives to keep our diesel going as it was a lot of snow to move,” Baird said. “With the wind chills, we’d have to pull the trucks off about every hour because we couldn’t keep the windshields clean. We’d have to take them back to the shop and get them thawed off and cleaned up. The cabs were nice and warm, but the snow coming up off the blades was still freezing outside of the cabs.”
While the Tuesday -Wednesday snow event was kind of a warm-up, things got much worse late Thursday night, keeping crews busy.
“We had guys start at around midnight Thursday night, and had someone out constantly on those emergency snow routes throughout the bigger storm. We concentrate on the emergency routes for fire, police, and rescue so they know those streets are mostly clear around town. We maintain those roads until the snow quits then move out to the other main streets. They may not be 100% clear, but we keep them very passable at all times for emergency crews. The hospital, the nursing homes, and the daycare around the school area we also concentrate pretty heavily on,” advised Baird. “We were out for most of the storm, and I stayed for four nights at the shop so if there was an emergency, I could get out. I always make sure someone is in town during an event like this. With the temperatures being so cold, we take the snow and dump it down at the boat ramp on Coolbaugh Street, or around the open areas guessing we’ll have about 200 loads off the square before we’re done. Right now we’re at about 75 loads.”
Another factor keeping the roads less clear than they could be is because the low temperatures have removed the effectiveness of salt.
“We went to a snow plowing school and the State of Iowa was there and talked about the issue. When we’re not putting down salt, it’s because it won’t work and maybe make things worse. When the temperature drops below 10 or 15 degrees, it doesn’t melt the snow or ice. After we got the streets cleared we did apply sand with a mix of salt, and now that we’ve had a warmer day on Jan. 17, the salt is starting to work, but up until then, sand was about all we could lay for traction,” Baird explained.
Baird complimented the new snow emergency ordinance that was put in place by the city. The snow emergency was in place Thursday night, and was not taken off until noon on Sunday, Jan. 14.
“I don’t think we could have picked a better year to do it. When you drive down some of these streets and have snow as deep as we did, if those plows catch, it takes you for a ride across the street. If you have cars you’re going beside and they catch, it’s not a good situation. I know it was an inconvenience for some people, but in the long run, it’s going to be a very good thing to have that in place,” said Baird. “Also, the fact that some of the business es closed on Friday helped us a lot. We did have some people driving around seeing what we were doing, so I will say that it will help us out a lot if they stay home unless it’s an all-out emergency. If they’re out there just to be out there, it slows down our operations, and if we have to stop for a car when we’re pushing that much snow, we can’t hardly get the truck moving again.”
City administrator Kyra Smith agreed that the snow emergencyordinance, while difficult, is necessary for safety.
“We are trying to get people up off the road. We understand it does create an inconvenience for citizens, but it really helps our street crew out, especially when they don’t have to worry about running into a car when the plows get to sliding.”
Smith said without the dedicated crews clearing the roads, there’s no telling how much worse it could have been.
“I honestly don’t think anyone would be getting out of town at all, especially on the side streets. Without their assistance and dedication and willingness to be away from their families for days on end, and being stuck in town we’d be in trouble. They’re making sure the citizens of Red Oak can get out once the storm is over, and getting things as clean as they possibly can. It’s going to be a continuing process of moving snow, and it will be a good week or two before things are cleared up completely. Once the warmer temperatures come, we can apply salt and get some of those slick spots cleaned up. We appreciate the phone calls from citizens, and if they feel they’ve been missed, or that the street hasn’t been cleared very well, they can call us here at city hall and we will communicate that to the right people,” Smith said.
In snow events, Baird praised the assistance of the water and sewer department in snow removal, as well as the parks department and the cemetery crew for clearing out snow at Evergreen Cemetery. 
Baird suggested residents wait until the plows have been by before cleaning out the ends of their driveways.
“If they leave the last six or seven feet of their driveway un shoveled, when we go by with the plows, it won’t dump into that open, clean driveway, it’ll pass and press more into the curb, and save people from having to re-shovel the ends of their driveways. We try to avoid covering up people’s driveways, but sometimes there’s nowhere for that snow to go,” Baird stated. “Sometimes people just forget. We haven’t had a bad winter for several years. When we get more snow in one week than we’ve had in two years, it can be a wake-up call for everybody.”
This week, temperatures will hold steady above freezing, which Baird said will be very helpful.
“This will thaw the snow packed on the streets, and then we’ll peel all that off to the edges of the roads so we can get bare streets again. That’s a big project itself, as we’ll have to plow every street again to remove the slush and snow as it comes loose,” Baird commented.
Smith also reminded residents that it’s the homeowner’s responsibility to make sure their mailboxes are accessible to mail carriers. Baird added that the city crews do what they can.
“We try to get as close to them as we can without damaging mailboxes. Damages do occur sometimes, because they are improperly installed at height or distance from the curb, and in some cases, it’s just accidental. If we hit the mailbox with the plow, we’ll work with the homeowner to have them fix it and we’ll reimburse them, or fix it by other means,” stated Baird.
Smith expressed her appreciation to all of the workers that have spent long hours on clearing roads.
“They’ve spent long hours away from their families sleeping in cots at the shop area to make sure they get things done and open for the citizens so we can get on with our daily lives,” Smith commented.
Lastly, Smith said snow in private parking lots is not cleared by the city, and snow removal from private parking areas are the responsibility of the company that owns the lot. Also, Smith urges residents to be mindful when clearing snow.
“When you’re plowing, you can temporarily put it in the street, but it needs to be put back into your yard. Don’t plow it into the street and drive off. It creates an issue for cars getting high centered, then it becomes ice-packed and it’s almost impossible for the crews to remove. You can leave it out there temporarily, but put it back in your yard after,” Smith advised. 
The Montgomery County Secondary Roads Department has also been running busy hours in an effort to clean off roads. County engineer Karen Albert said this event was the strongest she’s tackled in her tenure.
“This is the biggest snowfall that I can recall since I’ve been here, and I’ve been here about four years. We had a couple of strong events when I first got here, but they weren’t as big as this one, and it seems like we haven’t had many major events like this for the past few years,” Albert said.
Albert said they were ramping up for the major storm on Thursday night, putting chains on and checking equipment, before diving into snow removal on Friday.
“We knew there was going to be a lot of drifting, and we started clearing snow Friday morning and got the trucks and graders out on the paved roads to open them up and keep them open. However, we still had drifting, so on Saturday morning, the crews went back out on the paved roads to open them back up. That was the main focus those two days,” Albert advised. “After the wind settled down on Sunday morning, we had to get the equipment going in the bitterly cold temperatures. In each shed, we have diesel tanks but the pumps were only running on one tank, so truck drivers were taking fuel out to road graders and wheel loaders and we started working on clearing off the gravel roads. We opened up one lane on the gravel just to get something open on as many gravel roads as possible. We did that Monday and Tuesday as well, so at this point, we’ve pretty much got everything open with at least one lane.”
Albert said the county has the same issue the city has with the salt being unusable on roads for the past several days with below zero temperatures.
“We laid sand and salt but the salt isn’t working. Once the temperatures warm up a little bit the salt will start thawing, and we’re going to put some more salt out on areas that are still pretty covered and hopefully that will have some impact and the paved roads will be cleared to pavement. While that will be a benefit on the paved roads, it will cause some trouble on the gravel roads. As it gets warmer as the snow thaws and freezes, there may be some ice on the gravel that we’ll have to watch out for,” Albert explained. “We have also had a dump truck break down, and a motor grader break down, though it’s running now, but thankfully we’ve not had any major breakdown issues, and it’s just taking a little longer to clear the roads.”
Secondary Roads superintendent Loren Taylor said the county has the benefit of being able to shift snow on the roads rather than haul it from the downtown as in the city. Also, Taylor said they’re doing their best to keep crews from being overworked.
“Once we got everything opened up enough that residents could get out we shifted to starting at 7 in the morning and working 10 hour days to get everything cleared up and get everyone caught up on rest and allow the guys to clear up snow around their own homes. We’re still pretty exhausted,” stated Taylor.
Also, Taylor estimated it will be another week or so before all the roads in the county are totally cleared.
Albert praised the efforts of independent contractors and county residents in helping clear roads.
“They helped open up some of those gravel roads at times when we couldn’t get to them and we do appreciate that. It was very beneficial. Sometimes we can get to them in a day or so, but with the amount of snow and the drifting, it really helped us out as we weren’t able to get to some of the residents’ roads for a few days,” Albert stated.
Also, Albert said if people use heavy equipment to remove snow from their driveways to push it off the road.
“We prefer they push it off the road and not pile it high. If they can spread it out, that prevents large, high piles of snow across the roadways that cause issues. When Loren was out on Saturday morning, he came across a spot where someone had pushed snow to the west in a 10-foot tall pile, but snow had drifted off into a four foot pile across the road Loren had to break through to get by,” explained Albert.
Taylor said he’s proud of the crews for all the hard work they’ve been doing, and thanks the county residents for their support as they work to entirely clear off this major snow event. He also expressed his appreciation to Damien Bond and the roadside crew for assisting in clearing snowy roads, and to Montgomery County Emergency Management Coordinator Brian Hamman and safety director Morgan Lewellen for the assistance they have provided as well.