Crews rolling, asking public for patience

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent editor

Please try to be patient.

That was the message from the Van Wert Street Department and the Van Wert County ODOT garage ahead of a major winter storm that is expected to impact the area.

Crews at both locations spent Tuesday preparing for significant snowfall, perhaps the most the area has seen in at least six years. The latest forecast calls for anywhere between 7-17 of snow in Van Wert County between today and Thursday night. In addition, winds are expected to increase, especially Thursday, causing blowing and drifting snow.

Van Wert Street Superintendent Steve Thomas explained Tuesday that once the storm hits the city, crews will be hard at work but he added clearing a massive amount of snow will take time.

“We have six guys here and over 50 miles of roads and streets to clean,” Thomas explained. “If we get that kind of snow and the guys are constantly out, we’re going to be running 12 hour shifts, so there will be three trucks out for 12 hours then the next shift will come in and continue on.”

“Our main focus is keeping primary roads open,” Thomas continued. “We will try to keep a lane open on secondary roads, but we just ask people to be patient with us, we will get everything cleaned up, it’ll just take time.”

Thomas said the city has four salt trucks, a dump truck with an attachable plow, a tandem truck, a one-ton pickup truck with a plow, a backhoe, a loader and a skid loader.

As always, snow in downtown Van Wert will be collected and placed in the middle of the road.

“We will be bringing our big snowblower out and blowing snow the trucks to blow away,” Thomas said. “A lot of people try to drive through there and we have two lanes blocked and they still try to get around us, so if they can just give us some time to get it cleaned up it’ll all be back the way it was.”

At the county level, as many as 10 or 11 trucks will be on the roads.

“We’ll concentrate heavily on U.S. Route 30 with three trucks out there (on 30), along with 224 and 127,” ODOT Transportation Administrator Ron Leffel said. “We don’t want those roads to go closed. We don’t want the other routes to go closed either but they’re secondary routes – we want to keep the main routes open and the secondary ones passable.”

Leffel also said he expects blowing and drifting snow will be a big headache for ODOT crews.

“You plow it now and an hour later it’s back again, so it’s a real challenge to keep up with those spots,” Leffel said.

“Be patient, don’t go out unless you have to and give us plenty of room,” Leffel said. “If you see a snow plow stay back and let us do our job. We have the ‘don’t crowd the plow’ philosophy, but if you don’t need to be out, please stay home.”

Thomas and Leffel added they’ll be ready to provide assistance to clear the way for fire or EMS crews if necessary.