Winter’s long siege takes toll

Snow is hauled away from Mill Street in Colfax just in time for more to fall. County, city and town crews are working overtime to clear snow and ice-congested roadways.

Snow, wind and zero-range temperatures have taken a toll across the county over the last two weeks and have tested the endurance of road workers, school officials and individual motorists, some who face daily commuting challenges to get to work.

Tuesday, Public Works Director Mark Storey told county commissioners he estimates that 30-35 percent of the year’s $650,000 snow budget was spent in the first nine days.

“It just keeps coming,” Storey said.

A sander ended up on its side last weekend on the slick roads.

Two road-graders broke down last week and are now back on the roads plowing.

“Our mechanics are running full bore as our crews are,” said Storey.

All told, the county’s fleet of snowplows out on the roads includes 18 dump trucks with plows, 10 or more road graders, five or six front-end loaders with V-plows and a pickup with plow.

The tipped-over sander incident happened near LaCrosse and was pulled out with another county vehicle.

Public Works Operations Manager Phil Meyer reported late Tuesday wind has now pushed drifting to the forefront.

“We’re pushing snow back if we’re not pushing it out of the road,” Meyer said.

Overtime hours are stacking up.

“(Crews) worked New Year’s Day, the day after and ever since,” said Meyer.

The worst areas are near the Idaho border while Meyer’s 35-person plow crew plows through narrow spots around the county to keep roads open.

“You’re always short-handed when you get big storms,” said Meyer, who has worked in Whitman County Public Works for 30 years.

In the shop, mechanics work on transmissions and other issues.

“Ice raises havoc with wires, hoses and everything else,” Meyer said.

Predictions for next week are cold and clear, which may lead to the next stage.

“Hopefully this will melt off in an orderly way,” said Meyer. “We hope it doesn’t come too fast and hard. Every culvert in the county right now is plugged with snow.”

Also next on the docket will be to post load limits on the once-frozen roads as they thaw.

The 19,600-pound limits come with an exemption for essential services like garbage trucks.

“Grain and other things won’t happen for awhile,” Meyer said.

State highways will still permit heavy loads.

Gravel roads around the county will also have a transition to make in warmer weather.

“Frost pulverizes gravel roads,” Meyer said.

As the snow and ice melts, it melts from the top which can make for slimy and muddy gravel roads.

“There will be a period where the roads don’t look good coming out of this,” Meyer said.

Matt Hammer, Colfax Public Works director, said the biggest problem facing city crews is finding places to put snow. Crews worked last week to remove snow piles along S. Mill, S. East and Main streets.

“We are just running out of places to haul snow.”

Snow piles on the south ends of East and Mill congested traffic on the south end of Colfax where residents have to negotiate hills.

The city has deposited snow in the open spaces between Cooper Street and the bank of the South Fork of the Palouse River and West Cooper Street. Snow has also been deposited on the parking lot at the north end of Schmuck Park.

Hammer said the city crews as of Tuesday have worked 44 hours of overtime. The hours keep building up when crew members respond to each storm.

He said crews are working in shifts with a crew member on call-out when a storm hits during the night.

The Colfax sanding truck sustained a breakdown during the winter campaign, and it was out of commission for a week until parts arrived to put the machine back in operation.

A hike in city temperatures this week after last week’s cold snap, which dropped temperatures into the below zero range, turned the city crew’s attention to street drains which have been covered over by ice and snow.

Another run of cold temperatures is expected to hit later this week.

Hammer said the Colfax city crew has gone through 100 tons of crushed rock in the snow battle.

School closures Monday included St. John/Endicott and LaCrosse.

Two-hour delays for the start of school were booked at Colton, Steptoe, Rosalia, Garfield/Palouse and Tekoa.

LaCrosse Superintendent Doug Curtis said freezing rain took a toll on roads in the LaCrosse district Monday. He said the district on the west side of the county often gets hit with weather patterns from the Columbia Basin, and Sunday’s freezing rain was a result of that pattern.

Riparia, Central Ferry and Hooper all make up parts of the district and mean a wide range of topography when weather patterns hit, Curtis noted.

LaCrosse has now had to close school for two days, and had two-hour delays on two other days. The district had one flex day, March 3, which will now be a school day. The other day will have to be made up June 9.

Tekoa Supt. Connie Kliewer reported the district has had to close school for one day and log a two-hour delay for another day.

The district closed on the day when school was scheduled to resume after the holiday break because Highway 27 which runs north from Tekoa was shut down because of drifting snow.

Kliewer noted Tekoa does run a bus north to Latah for students who choose to go to Tekoa.

Scott Puckett, Tekoa’s bus supervisor who drives south to Tekoa each day, said cars and trucks were stopped by drifting snow about a half mile south of Latah that day.

Puckett makes a check of Tekoa routes starting at 4 a.m. when storms hit. He noted the runs include Farmington, Highway 27 south and roads running between them.

The routes include several road cuts which can fill rapidly when the new snow starts to blow.

Another factor in the Tekoa bus transport system is the shuttle the district operates as part of the Tekoa/Rosalia sports combination.