Middletown Public Works Director Scott Tadych said Tuesday, “we are still at it. They will continue all day and into the night on side roads and cleaning up the main roads.”
He added crews are concerned about some refreeze as the temperature drops and remains frigid for the rest of the week. Plow operators are spreading salt in addition to plowing, but the colder the temps, the less effective the salt.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“We will be going back over everything. The main roads are okay, most the side roads have had a least one pass, but they are going to need some more work over the next couple days,” Tadych said.
Middletown had to contend with some equipment issues.
“With these extended events, which is the nature of the business, we have equipment breakdowns,” he said. That comes from continuous use of equipment. In house mechanics are available for make repairs, but availability of parts can slow down the process.
Equipment breakdowns were also a challenge for the Butler County Engineer’s Office that is responsible for clearing county roads, but repairs were also made in house to get the trucks back out as quickly as possible, according to Betsy Horton, engineer’ office spokeswoman
On Tuesday, county snow trucks were out checking for areas of drifting snow and “taking care” of removing snow where some businesses have pushed it back into the roadway, Horton said.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“Our plan is to clean things up the best we can today. We got everything cleared, a nice path through every road that we have; everything’s passable and safe,” Dan Arthur, Hamilton’s director of Public Works, said, of the 550 lane miles cleared in the city.
The next two days Hamilton crews will make sure the snow removal equipment is ready to go on Friday – which includes cleaning and repairs – when 1 to 3 more inches are expected to fall.
Hamilton used 1,102 tons of salt battling the storm. About 500 more tons of salt was expected to be delivered Tuesday.
Hamilton Mayor Pat Moeller said “for the amount of snow for a two-day snow event, this is excellent work by the street department to clear the major streets. And the secondary streets are doing pretty good.”
Fairfield Public Works Director Ben Mann said they had road crews operating around the clock since 10 a.m. Sunday on 12-hour shifts.
He said the streets in the city “are good right now,” with the major roads cleared but admitted “we got a lot of work to do in the subdivisions.”
“It’s just a lot of snow in the curb lines. There are only so many places to put it,” he said of the near foot of snow that fell in the city. “With that big volume of snow, it’s hard to get all of it off everywhere.”
At 9 a.m. Tuesday, Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones downgraded the snow emergency set Monday from Level 2 to Level 1. He said early Monday he did not expect to raise the level to a 3, which would have meant no one should be on the roads unless it is necessary to travel.
Jones said he depends on the deputies out on the roads and the engineer’s office when making the call.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
“For me to got to a level 3, the engineer’s office would have to say they need help keeping people off the road,” Jones said. “Yesterday at level 2 there were hardly anyone on the road. So it (level 2) did its job.”
The sheriff said he made the level 3 designation once, and it creates issue with people authorization to not report for work and commerce “totally shutting down.”
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
