Community-by-community Iowa Storm Preparations

IOWA WEATHER: A community-by-community breakdown of severe winter weather's impact on central Iowa.

Altoona

The Altoona snow ordinance will go into effect as soon as one inch of snow accumulates.

Snow plowing plans and preparation are already well underway, beginning with some minor adjustments and repairs to snow vehicles, according to Public Works Superintendent Aaron Putnum.

The other element involves coordinating schedules between employees with public works, public utilities and the building departments. Things could be more complicated if the storm hits midday, as predicted.

?If this event occurs during the day, it will be more challenging than a night time event because of the increased traffic on the streets,? Putnam said.

As for the game plan, during the day the full crew will maintain the arterial and collector streets and the residential as needed based on winds and accumulation, Putnam said. Following that, an evening crew will keep arterial streets open and at midnight the full snow removal crew will come back in and clear the ?arterial, collector, and neighborhood? streets, according to Putnam.

Ankeny

Ankeny?s Public Works Department plans to start the snow removal crew around 4 p.m. Thursday, and they will work until 3 a.m. Friday. There will be a crew of eight working from 3 to 7 a.m. Friday. A full crew is expected to go over the roads again at 7 a.m. Friday.

The city has declared a snow emergency banning parking on city streets that goes into effect at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Clive

Clive public works crews are beginning to prepare for the storm expected to hit the metro Thursday.

City staffers have carried out the standard vehicle and equipment checks to prepare for the snowfall, assistant city manager Matt McQuillen said.

A 17-person crew, comprised of public works and parks department staff, is preparing to clear the streets around mid-afternoon Thursday, he said.

If conditions warrant, crews will be prepared to work overnight, McQuillen said.

McQuillen said Clive?s snow ordinance will begin when snow starts to accumulate.

?Whenever snow starts to accumulate, we ask that all resident have their vehicles off the streets,? he said. Crews can clear streets in a more efficient manner when residents abide by the ordinance, he added.

The ordinance remains in effect until streets have been plowed curb to curb. Those in violation of the ordinance are subject to ticketing and towing.

Dallas County

Dallas County Engineer Jim George said roughly 26 employees will begin working dawn to dusk once the snow starts ? 10 on motor graders assigned to push snow off roughly 700 miles of gravel roads, another 10 in plow-quipped trucks patrolling a total of 180 miles of paved streets and a half-dozen in the shop focused on keeping all the equipment running.

Today is mostly about vehicle preparation, George said, because Dallas County believes it doesn?t tend to work very well to try to pre-treat rural roads in advance of a snowstorm. It?s better to just let the snow blow off, if it can.

The blowing will start in earnest tomorrow afternoon, George said. After that, county drivers will be working roughly from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.

County roads are curvy, George said: ?If you put them out after dark, you end up with more in the ditch than on the road.? A countywide snow ordinance is in effect. No parking is allowed on rural roads.

?That?s probably our biggest problem is folks venturing out when travel?s not advised,? the county engineer said. ?People end up getting stuck and then we have to work around them.?

Grimes

Grimes crews have not done anything out of the ordinary to prepare for the snow storm. Crews will not plow through the night Thursday, said Joe McAreavy, public works director, but the 10-member crew will play it by ear.

?The whole point is to get the people home at night.?

The snow ordinance will go into effect when two inches hits the ground, requiring all cars not park in the public right-of-way. The city can also put the ordinance in effect depending on the weather conditions, McAreavy said.

McAreavy asks Grimes residents to pay attention to the weather and react accordingly.

?If they don?t need to be out in it then stay home,? he said.

Indianola

Snow ordinances for Carlisle and Indianola are in effect as of Wednesday afternoon.

In addition, Norwalk Community School district has announced that they will move up parent-teacher conferences to try to beat the weather. Conferences will begin at 8 a.m. on Thursday and try to complete all conferences, weather permitting, by 6 p.m. Thursday.

To change conferences, contact Mrs. Stewart at 981-1005.

The Simpson College Storm also is delaying its season opening baseball game against Sul Ross State from Feb. 22 to Feb. 23 at 10 a.m.

The Storm are slated to play in Clarksville, Ark., but changed travel plans due to the potential bad weather.

Johnston

Johnston crews have pre-treated all main streets and are going over equipment this afternoon.

?It?s pretty quiet; it?s the lull before the storm,? said public works director Dave Cubit.

Plowing won?t start until there?s enough snow on the streets to move. Depending on how the storm hits, Cubit said, plow drivers could be out all night Thursday. The entire crew of 25 drivers will be out when the snow flies.

The snow ordinance will go into effect tomorrow afternoon based on the current storm predictions. The ordinance requires motorists not to park their cars on the street during a snow storm.

Pleasant Hill

The streets in Pleasant Hill have been treated with a brine solution and are ?all ready to go,? according to Pleasant Hill Police Chief Tim Sittig.

Sittig said a snow ordinance will likely go into effect around noon, depending on when the heavy snow hits. The city would like to have the streets cleared of parked cars for the evening commute.

?With any luck we won?t get that thick ice,? Sittig said of the elements that plagued the streets for days after recent snow storms.

He also said it appears the wind will be blowing the opposite direction, which will ?pretty much reverse all the trends for the blowing and drifting.?

The police department and city are otherwise prepared for the next arctic blast.

?They?re just waiting for it to start snowing,? Sittig said.

Polk County

Polk County workers are preparing snow maintenance vehicles ahead of Thursday?s anticipated storm and monitoring the weather forecast, Engineer Kurt Bailey said.

County employees won?t work overnight, Bailey said, though he expects nearly 40 employees to be available as the storm hits tomorrow. High winds may stifle the county?s snow efforts, but Bailey hopes to make headway with road clearances by Friday.

More than one inch of accumulating snow will trigger the county?s snow ordinance, Bailey said, a no-parking enforcement along roads that mostly affects those in townships and unincorperated areas.

Story County

County roads on Thursday will be plowed by 26 maintenance staff from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m., said Darren Moon, county engineer. There are no snow ordinances for county roads. Plows will be pulled if driving conditions become too dangerous, he said.

Urbandale

Urbandale streets have been pre-treated and salt has been put out to help minimize the snow pack, city officials said.

Urbandale crews plan to work through the night Thursday and call in additional help from the solid waste operators and parks and recreation staff, said public works director David McKay. About 30 people will be out plowing the streets.

McKay expects to put a snow ordinance in place tomorrow afternoon, which requires all cars to not park on the street.

?Other than that it?s just waiting for the storm,? he said. ?I think we?re ready.?

Waukee

Waukee?s snow ordinance will be in effect beginning at 6 p.m. Thursday, assistant director of public works Tim Royer said.

He said the plan was for the ordinance to remain in effect until noon Saturday. Parking is prohibited on all city streets while the ordinance is in effect.

Royer said he had communicated with the police department about storm preparations.

As of now, crews are preparing to clear the streets during the mid-afternoon Thursday. There will be nine dump trucks and six pickups out plowing, Royer said.

Royer said the tentative plan was for crews to be out until around 11 p.m. Thursday and for crews to report Friday around 3 a.m. Royer said he hoped people weren?t working overnight, but that crews may adjust their plan, depending on the storm?s timeline.

West Des Moines

West Des Moines road crews hope to be finished by roughly 4 p.m. today with their plan to pretreat city streets with a mixture of salt brine and a substance made from sugar beet (so the salt sticks to the road).

After that, crews plan to stand down and wait.

Public Works Director Bret Hodne said the city will run two 12-hour shifts with roughly 20 plow drivers each. The first crew will report for duty as normal on Thursday; their replacements will come in at 8 p.m. and stay until the following morning.

Crews initially will work in groups of three to five trucks per team in a bid to clear arterial streets curb-to-curb as quickly as possible, Hodne said. After that, at some point, drivers will split off for solo assignments in one of 13 residential districts. Hodne is hoping there will be some kind of lull in the storm that will let drivers spend all night in residential areas.

?Really, the timing of this event isn?t too bad,? he said. ?But the wind will not be our friend Thursday night.?

West Des Moines plans to institute a streetside parking ban some time around 6 p.m. on Thursday, he said. The city also is calling in extra employees to staff its fire stations and emergency dispatch centers.

?The whole city?s kind of preparing, getting ready to batten down the hatches,? he said.

Windsor Heights

Windsor Heights Public Works Director Jason Van Ausdall said Wednesday afternoon he is preparing his crews to run a 24-hour shift after they start salting and plowing streets Thursday as the latest winter storm begins.

?I will be putting the snow ordinance into effect in the morning, probably around 8 or 9 after people get to work,? he said, adding crews will start work when the storm is predicted to hit. They?ll then plan to work all night Thursday.

?We?ll be running around-the-clock shifts with a six-man crew.?

While Des Moines Public Works employees started pretreating city streets with a brine solution Tuesday evening, Windsor Heights does not use that solution, Van Ausdall said, and they won?t pretreat the roads.

Source: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/viewart/20130220/NEWS/302210032

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