Where Spencer's snow goes

It doesn't just disappear on its own accord. The group effort needed to remove any accumulated snow requires Spencer's street division workers to haul it. Staff and supervisors from other city departments also assist in the snow-removal process, especially when the job requires around-the-clock plowing.

Spencer's primary dump site for the snow is an approximately 10-acre field west of the wastewater treatment plant on 10th Avenue Southeast. Mark White, Spencer's public works director, reported after hauling the rest of Tuesday night's one-half inch snowfall to it, that it was "close to being full."

The city's secondary snow dump site is just west of Riverside Cemetery, the undeveloped portion of the cemetery off Country Club Drive.

"We're going to open that up in the next day or so," White said Wednesday morning. "In the last 10 years, I only remember us switching to the alternate dumpsite twice."

City crews aren't the only ones who haul snow to the two sites. Local businesses and snow-removal contractors are also allowed to deposit snow at them.

White also indicated one thing that seems to accompany the two snow dumpsites is "an unbelievable amount of garbage that's dumped: Mufflers, pop bottles or concrete blocks. So, we have a lot of work to do in the spring to clean the sites back up."

(Photo by Randy Cauthron) A Spencer street department employee unloads another mass of snow collected Wednesday, Jan. 14 in the city's primary dump site for snow. [Order this photo]

The snow-removal and -relocation process

According to White, Harold Sunday and Dean Peterson, a former director of Spencer's public works department, deserve credit for the way Spencer's snow routes are set up.

"We're responsible for maintaining and plowing snow for approximately 88 lane miles of streets in town. And also an additional eight miles of alleys," White explained.

But moving that snow doesn't just mean one 96-mile trek on Spencer's streets and alleys.

"We make four passes on every street with the plow trucks," White clarified. "There are three plow routes in town that have two trucks on them. We have another route, the central business district, that's plowed with two motor graders. The same time these trucks go out, we have an end loader that goes out and cleans alleys, cul-de-sacs and intersections. Another truck goes to the airport."

Those "trucks" -- tandem and single-axle in nature -- require their drivers to have Commercial Driver's Licenses.

"When we remove the snow from Grand Avenue, or the central business district, we use a combination of city equipment and rental trucks. We use our end loader with a snowblower on the front to load the trucks. That loads the windrows, or the piles of snow in the center of the street, that you see. It never stops," White said of Spencer's snowblower. "It just keeps moving along and filling trucks. ... We also use another end loader to clean city-owned parking lots."

White compared Spencer's process of loading snow to cutting silage -- but on a larger scale.

The latest example occurred late last night, when snow was hauled from Spencer's downtown via one dozen 10 - 40-yard semis. Rick Newcomb, who scheduled the detailed operation, arrived at work around midnight.

"Typically, we plow the streets the first night. The next night is when we come in and remove the snow from the central business district," White said. "We always start at midnight. And, almost every time, on the button, we start loading trucks at 2 a.m. We start at Eighth and Grand and work south."

Resources needed for the process

The city has about $120,000 in its 2008-09 fiscal year budget earmarked for snow removal. As of Jan. 5, which does not include the latest snowfalls, 65 percent of Spencer's snow budget had been used.

A mixture of sand, salt and chloride is used to battle the wintry mixes that stick.

"We use 90 pounds of chloride per ton of sand. On our main intersections, we add 50 percent rock salt to that mixture," White said.

Spencer's central garage stores the snow-fighting materials. It will hold about 385 ton of salt. While he indicated enough of each are in storage yet, the public works director acknowledged planning ahead helped Spencer with the current road-salt shortage experienced elsewhere in the nation.

"We started receiving salt last July and August. It's a good thing we did, because we received a load about three weeks ago that had been on order since August," White said. " ... We received one load last week that was on order, but we have eight loads (of around 25 ton each) on order right now, and I don't know if we'll get them."

While the city official noted there are specific sanding routes in place that include controlled intersections, main streets and high-grade roadways, he stated the street division is in "somewhat of a conservation mode" with its road salt.

"We're using more sand and chloride without as much salt in it. But when it's colder, we don't skimp on anything," he assured. "Because when it's really cold, the products don't work as well. So, we're not skimping then -- and we'll do whatever it takes to get through and provide a good driving surface."

Illustrating this point, he continued, "They start to plow the routes at 1 a.m. on a normal snow, and it takes about seven to eight hours to get through them. I came to work this (Wednesday) morning, and the routes had been plowed and the downtown area had already been sanded. So, we try to have the streets cleaned and sanded prior to people going to work. That's a goal."

(Photo by Randy Cauthron) Spencer Public Works Director Mark White stands in front of the large pile of snow collected from Spencer's streets and alleys this winter. [Order this photo]

The men who manage Spencer's roadways

Dwayne Sebby, who is serving his first year as the street division superintendent, is the person who decides when to plow Spencer's streets.

The division's 11 employees who regularly are involved with snow removal and running the equipment include: Kirby Bussell, Dan Hollander, Larry Clark, Larry Freeman, Randy Runkle, Tim Egland, Thomas Walker, Nick Laubenthal, Dan Muhlbauer and Tim Hamrick. Mechanic Laef Lundbeck also plows snow routes. Mark Langholz is another mechanic in the shop who works to keep all the equipment operational.

As White suggested the hardest part of the snow-removal and -relocation process is determining when to call a snow emergency -- when vehicles are not allowed to be parked on city streets -- he mentioned an effort "to be more aggressive and consistent" with this occurred recently.

"We might not have called it on a prediction before, but we will now," he said. "For example, we had a pretty nice afternoon Tuesday; but it was a 100 percent chance of snow at night. So, we called a snow emergency that went in effect at 10 p.m. and was lifted at 8 a.m. Wednesday."

An unwritten philosophy among department staff, the public works director relayed, is to be able to get winter drivers two or three blocks to a main street that's sanded 100 percent.

However, the longer this winter goes, White acknowledged the less understanding some people are when their driveways are blocked in with newly-plowed snow from the street. Spencer's public works director, who is among the city employees who field ensuing telephone calls, stressed it's not intentional.

"We're just doing our job, that's all," he said. "I clean the snow from the end of my driveway also."

When asked what his first thought is when he hears another big snowfall is expected, White smiled and then laughed as he answered, "Can't we get a break?"

That then turns to, "Here we go again."