From summer sealing to winter plowing - City talks streets

As the City of Kimball prepares to chip seal more than 20,000 square yards of Kimball streets, they considered the local snow removal plan for the coming winter.

As far as chip sealing local streets, council approved sealing 10 blocks as opposed to the 14 they did last year, at their regular meeting on Tuesday, July 17. Streets to be sealed include Burg and Webster, though the original plan included Howard Street as well.

The sole bid came from TopKote, the same business that has done the job for the city in the past, at a cost of $3.25 per square yard.

Looking forward to winter, council considered, and ultimately approved, the snow removal plan and an emergency snow procedure, presented by City of Kimball Street Department Superviser Jim Shoup. Last year several residents made complaints about the removal of snow from city streets and Shoup formed a plan to present to council before snow starts to fall.

“It might seem like a silly time to be talking about snow in the middle of a heat wave,” Shoup said. “but it is a pretty good time to talk about it, as passions are subsided.”

Priorities have been established with the first being the main highways going through town, as well as, direct routes to the hospital.

Bus routes, the downtown business district and major arterial streets were given the second priority, including Oak and Sixth Streets. State, North and East Main Streets were also named as secondary priority routes, as they are the alternate truck routes north of the railroad tracks.

“We have three plows going at once. Usually there is one doing downtown and one headed to the schools,” Shoup said. “We go out at 4 a.m. normally. We have our routes and 117 lane miles.”

Residential streets are the final priority.

“If we get a major snow storm, they are probably not going to get done right away,” Shoup said. “We are going to try to get them done in a timely manner.”

These priorities are not new, as the City has been adhering to this outline for years, but council approved designating an emergency snow route in the future. Current local policy reads that the Chief of Police has the authority to declare a snow emergency.

“We might like to recommend a more formal policy that when we receive three or four inches it is automatically declared an emergency route and vehicles need to be cleared off the route so we can get out and clean it approporiately,” City Administrator Dan Dean added.

Changing the policy now will allow citizens more advanced notice that, when the snow begins piling up, vehicles need to be moved off the priority routes.

As plows work to open up lanes of travel, often the snow forms a row down the center of local streets. Once lanes are clear, City workers begin clearing the center of the streets as well.

“We still have the (snow) blower, but we didn’t seem to have one snow last year that was just right to blow,” Shoup said. “We could work on it for a couple of hours and then it would get too wet.”

Citizens and business owners are reminded, also, that snow removed from residences and businesses should not be put into the middle of the street, by ordinance.

Signage will go up and everyone affected by the emergency snow route will receive notification prior to the coming winter.

Council members also sought ideas for parking when vehicles have to be removed from streets to allow for safe removal along the snow routes. This matter will be revisited at a future council meeting.