{"id":150908,"date":"2022-02-02T04:41:32","date_gmt":"2022-02-02T09:41:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=150908"},"modified":"2022-02-03T04:48:07","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T09:48:07","slug":"crews-ready-to-roll-but-asking-the-public-for-patience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2022\/02\/02\/crews-ready-to-roll-but-asking-the-public-for-patience\/","title":{"rendered":"Crews rolling, asking public for patience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please try to be patient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
This City of Van Wert truck is getting prepped to help clear snow from a major winter storm set to hit today and tomorrow. Scott Truxell\/Van Wert independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have six guys here and over 50 miles of roads and streets to clean,\u201d Thomas explained. \u201cIf we get that kind of snow and the guys are constantly out, we\u2019re 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur main focus is keeping primary roads open,\u201d Thomas continued. \u201cWe 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\u2019ll just take time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, snow in downtown Van Wert will be collected and placed in the middle of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will be bringing our big snowblower out and blowing snow the trucks to blow away,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cA 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\u2019ll all be back the way it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the county level, as many as 10 or 11 trucks will be on the roads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll concentrate heavily on U.S. Route 30 with three trucks out there (on 30), along with 224 and 127,\u201d ODOT Transportation Administrator Ron Leffel said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want those roads to go closed. We don\u2019t want the other routes to go closed either but they\u2019re secondary routes \u2013 we want to keep the main routes open and the secondary ones passable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leffel also said he expects blowing and drifting snow will be a big headache for ODOT crews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou plow it now and an hour later it\u2019s back again, so it\u2019s a real challenge to keep up with those spots,\u201d Leffel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBe patient, don\u2019t go out unless you have to and give us plenty of room,\u201d Leffel said. \u201cIf you see a snow plow stay back and let us do our job. We have the \u2018don\u2019t crowd the plow\u2019 philosophy, but if you don\u2019t need to be out, please stay home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thomas and Leffel added they\u2019ll be ready to provide assistance to clear the way for fire or EMS crews if necessary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-150908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 20:10:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}