The November temperatures have been above average, but this is the time of the year when city crews begin preparations for winter street maintenance.
The city will once again plow main roadways and hills when two or more inches of snow has fallen, but residential street and alleys will not be plowed until four or more inches of snowfall; this is the same policy that was first implemented in 2014-2015. This plan is flexible and does change based upon the projected forecasts. The city will also continue to pre-treat roadways with a beet juice and brine mixture.
With the price of salt continuing to creep up, crews will do their best to conserve salt as much as possible. Salt prices for 2021-2022 were $57.33 per ton and have increased more than $20 per ton from last season to $79.92 per ton this year. It is predicted that salt prices for the 2023-2024 season will be above $85.00 per ton. The city’s 10 year average roadway salt usage is 1,204 tons per year.
As city crews take to the roadways this winter, we’ll again include in the City Manager's weekly newsletter the Snow Report which details hours worked and overall costs to treat the roadways.