Ready, set, snow

City plows, drivers, supplies ready for winter

By Bob Brown
CVCTV News Director

Walking around in shorts on an abnormally warm early November day, one might easily be distracted from thoughts about the necessary preparations for impending winter.

Some people, however, cannot afford that luxury. People like Steven Thompson.

For the past four years, Thompson has been the city of Eau Claire’s street maintenance manager. So rather than enjoying the surprising warmth of late autumn, he’s doing things like checking on the city’s supply of sand and road salt, ensuring its snowplows and drivers are ready for action, and meeting with groups to explain a new alternate-side-of-the-street parking policy.

Thanks to such prep work, Thompson has ready answers for all the key questions regarding the city’s preparedness for winter.

Stocks of sand and road salt?

“We have plenty of material,” he says. “Last winter was relatively mild, so it didn’t hurt our supply. So (this year) we didn’t have to order quite as much material. We’re in good shape that way.”

Snowplows ready to roll?

Equipment maintenance is well underway, Thompson assures. Perhaps more importantly, those charged with maneuvering the plows through clogged city streets amidst the worst of winter’s wrath have been busy honing their skills.

As they do each fall, Thompson’s crews have been practicing by driving snowplows through a winding obstacle course along the back roads of Carson Park.

For most it’s a refresher course. But, Thompson says, each year there seem to be a few new city employees going through a kind of baptism by friendly fire. If they mess up during this training, the only casualties are plastic cones and a couple of rusty beaters donated by a local car dealer.

Twenty-nine workers in the city’s street division are trained snowplow operators. And, Thompson says, employees from other departments – going as high up the chain of command as Assistant City Manager Dale Peters – have been trained and can help out during major snow events.

This year the Eau Claire City Council and the local media were invited to participate in a limited portion of the snowplow training. Those taking turns behind the wheel of a plow for a short jaunt included Council President Kerry Kincaid, who exited the vehicle with a renewed appreciation for the job done by the real plow drivers.

“It’s hard. You have to multi-task,” Kincaid says. “You’re driving. You’re moving two plows, not just one. And then you have to manipulate the plows and turn the vehicle. It’s really hard.”

She smiles and adds, “I’m always very proud of our city employees, of course. Now I’ll be more proud.”

Winter parking regulations?

The City Council recently revamped the rules regarding on-street parking during winter months.

The basics of the rules remain the same: on odd-number calendar days, vehicles must be parked on the side of the street with odd-number addresses. And on even-numbered calendar days, parking must be done on the even-numbered side of the street.

The major change in the new policy applies to when those odd-even parking regulations will be enforced.

In the past, the regulations were in effect between midnight and 7 a.m. each day from Nov. 1 to May 1, regardless of the weather conditions. Vehicles that were in violation of the rules could be ticketed even if the streets were devoid of snow.

The new regulations will be in effect only when the city declares a “snow event.” For a 72-hour period following such a declaration, the odd-even parking rules will be in effect between the hours of midnight and 5 p.m., eight hours longer than under the previous policy.

“I think there will be a learning curve as there is with any change,” Thompson says of the new winter parking rules.

But he predicts city residents soon will come to appreciate that for most of the winter the odd-even parking rules won’t need to be enforced. And at those times when they are in effect, snowplows will be able to clear city streets more quickly and thoroughly thanks to the extra hours in which one side of each street will be clear of vehicles.

The biggest challenge in adopting the new winter parking regulations will be communicating to the public when a “snow event” has been declared, Thompson says. The new policy requires that such notice be given at least six hours before the restrictions go into effect.

But Thompson is confident the public can be reached effectively via the city’s web site, social media outlets and local news media. He’s also convinced that any initial confusion will be outweighed by the long-term benefits of the new parking policy.

Kincaid agrees, saying, “I understand that citizens will be inconvenienced initially. But from a city operations point of view, it will make for a better product in the end. So I think it will be good.”

(Editor’s note: By clicking on the following link, city residents can sign up to receive an e-mail notification whenever a “snow event” requiring implementation of the odd-even parking regulations has been declared. http://www.ci.eau-claire.wi.us/about-us/sign-up-for-e-notifications)

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