Getting past 33 inches of snow might have slowed down city employees, but it did not stop them as they worked for days to dig Shawano out after one of the biggest blizzards in recent memory.
Despite a couple of equipment breakdowns during the March 15-16 storm, the public works crews managed to keep up with clearing roads, according to Public Works Director Mike Mahloch. He noted that the roads were at least passable by the afternoon of March 16, although hard-packed snow persisted on most roads.
“I think, overall, everything went good,” Mahloch said. “Equipment held up for the most part.”
He noted it was not easy keeping up, even with plow drivers out there working more than 16 hours a day to clear the roads. The full staff of 16 public works employees were out clearing the way.
“It can feel frustrating for the plow drivers because you feel you’re not getting anywhere,” Mahloch said. “Our plow drivers go through their routes, and by the time they finished their route, they were starting back over. You really didn’t get a break from it for the first 24-30 hours of it.”
Even after the snow stopped, employees have still been clearing roads for 16 hours daily as their attention shifted to finding places to store the sheer amount of snow that fell.
“Our downtown areas and our schools became a priority to remove some of the snow so we could open up parking and safety for the kids around the schools,” Mahloch said. “We ended up pulling snow on Tuesday and Wednesday (March 17-18) to make sure we had parking available and safe passage around downtown.”
After clearing downtown, work shifted to dropping salt on the roads to help melt the remaining snow, according to Mahloch. He said it’s been a challenge.
“In some areas, we’ve had 2-3 inches of hardpack snow on the roads, and our equipment, it’s hard for it to peel off,” he said. “We’ve had a grader out there and a front-end loader that’s scraping this stuff off, but it’s been a slow process. As soon as cars drive over it again, it kind of fluffs it up with what you’re seeing on the corners with a lot of this loose snow on the roads.”
Despite it being the end of winter, Mahloch said the city had plenty of salt and a salt/sand combination to clear the roads.
While public works crews were trying to clear the roads, police officers still had to respond to emergency calls. Police Chief Mike Musolff reported that overall calls were down, but blizzard conditions resulted in more difficulty getting to those in need.
“Our officers were out and about, trying to help as many people as they could during the time,” Musolff said. “With 33 inches of snow, it created extraordinary conditions for our community. Despite the conditions, our priority remained the same — to protect life, ensure emergency response and to protect the community.”
Musolff noted that, despite the poor conditions, there were a number of vehicles on the roads, and many of them got stuck as a result.
“We were dealing with a lot of those,” he said. “With the tow ban that was in place, it was difficult to get people moving with their cars. They were pulling into parking lots with snow banks that they couldn’t drive through, and they were hitting them anyway.”
Despite drivers using poor sense, Musolff noted that the Shawano Police Department was better off during the blizzard than the Shawano County Sheriff’s Department, which recorded over 100 crashes as the snow fell.
“Our city officers did the best that they could to get to the places they could go to,” Musolff said. “I think it was a stressful weekend for our officers, but they were able to get through.”
Musolff credited the public works crews clearing the roads as much as possible in order for officers to make it to calls. He said that police vehicles are all-wheel drive, which helped in areas where plowing hadn’t been as much of a focus.
Besides stranded motorists, the city also had a number of calls to do welfare checks on elderly residents, according to Musolff. Those calls included checking to ensure furnace vents were clear to prevent carbon monoxide issues.
“That’s one of the big concerns in these types of snowstorms with those venting pipes getting clogged up,” Musolff said. “People couldn’t get out to check them, so we help out where we can.”
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
