Williams News Logo
Grand Canyon News Logo

Trusted local news leader for Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon

A snowy job
Handful of city workers work to clear streets each winter

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br>
Crews with the city of Williams work to clear snow from Route 66 the morning of Dec. 18.

<br>Patrick Whitehurst/WGCN<br> Crews with the city of Williams work to clear snow from Route 66 the morning of Dec. 18.

When the snow begins to fly across northern Arizona, crews with the city of Williams prepare themselves for long hours. With last week's back-to-back snowfall, city employees often worked from 3 a.m. to 8 p.m. to clear the streets of snow, according to officials with the city of Williams. Crews will be putting in some extra hours this week as well, possibly working on Christmas, as more snow is predicted across the region through Friday.

"This entire town is cleaned up by eight to 11 workers. That kind of puts it in perspective. We have the priorities first, the streets have to be cleared, but there's no way that we can actually get in and pick up the snow and move it until later. You have to open them first and I don't know that there's a solution anywhere on keeping those driveways cleared out," said Williams City Manager Dennis Wells, adding that he appreciates the hard work put in by city crews.

"I think Williams does as good a job, if not better, than other communities. I give our guys a lot of credit. It'll be a blizzard and everyone's inside drinking hot cocoa and these guys are out hitting it," Wells said. "I'm proud of them and I think they do a good job. We are sympathetic to people's plight, but I think what everyone has to remember is that everyone is in that same boat and in that same situation at the same time. We are really working as hard as we can to clear things up, so much so that we actually called in some emergency equipment this last time. The city does have a set budget that we try to get through every winter on and, I think for this winter, we're already pushing our budget on our winter storm cleanup. But whatever it takes, we're going to keep going. On the bright side, we have a new grader now and a new dump truck with a plow. We'll do what we can with what we have."

Wells said that problems can arise, however, when large storms move in back-to-back and produce a larger than average snowfall.

"What happens is the city has to move thousands of tons of snow in a very quick amount of time," said Wells. "That's where the rub comes, the two storms last week, back-to-back. We were still cleaning up the first storm when the second storm hit. It's literally, not only plowing the streets, but then loading it and carrying that snow off. Just think of the amount, the weight of all that material and the dump truck loads and the volume of the material. It's a very tedious process."

According to city officials, salt is only used sparingly within the community and then only on the sidewalks to deal with stubborn patches of ice.

"The citizens really do not like using chemicals. I'm of that same belief that it really causes much more damage to your car and problems in the environment than good that it does. We do use the cinders and I think they're just about as effective."

Snow used to be stored on Third Street, according to Wells, though it has since been decided to no longer pile snow in that location since the opening of the new National Bank of Arizona building. Other storage locations include an area along Railroad Avenue near the Williams Justice Court. Snow can also be placed at the Bob Dean Rodeo Grounds as well.

"You won't see snow piled in Third Street again," Wells said. "Unless we get into such an emergency that we have to do it out of necessity, but that would be a storm that's bigger than the ones we had last week."

A number of complaints

According to city of Williams officials, last week's storm produced a higher than average list of complaints from city residents. According to city of Williams Public Works Director Glenn Cornwell, many of the complaints had to do with snow-blocked driveways.

"The two major areas that we've been getting complaints on are driveways getting plowed in and sidewalks and mailboxes. Those are basically the responsibility of the homeowner and we work with them. The driveways in particular, if you can get in there and plow out your driveway after we come through and then throw your snow down stream of where they're going. We always go with the flow of traffic, throw the snow up that way and moves up that way and we don't plow it back it in. We take every complaint in. We try to talk to everyone if we can."

With tighter than average budgets, due to a weak economy across Arizona and the nation, however, overtime hours are being kept to a minimum.

"We keep it to a minimum. We use just what's absolutely necessary. If we've got something going and we can add a couple more hours to keep going, we make it worthwhile we do that. If we don't, we wait and then we come back in the morning. They take off four hours and back on. We do try to minimize, right now, the overtime," Cornwell said. "We did not work this Saturday or the weekend, but we worked every other day from somewhere around three in the morning to eight at night. A lot of days ran that long."

City crews typically begin planning for winter weather in November. A copy of the snow regulations is also placed in city water bills to inform residents on snow policies in the city of Williams. City employee Horacio Ortiz, called the "snow czar" of Williams, holds a meeting in September of each year. According to Cornwell, the meetings consist of ordering parts and settings assignment for the coming snow season.

"We don't just wait until the snow starts. He's working on it back in November," Cornwell said. "Every worker that's involved comes to that meeting, gets an assignment for vehicle or truck, where they're going to go in town. We prepare for the worst in September."

When a storm does hit, crews work hand in hand with a number of agencies, including the Williams Police Department, when it comes to snow removal and helping those in need. Contractors and "emergency personnel" have also been utilized to help clean the snow.

"We do work very closely with the Police Department, they help us with moving cars and putting up signs and generally passing on complaints that they get from the public. They play a pretty major part," Cornwell said.

According to Ortiz, snow is first stored wherever possible, either on the sides of city streets or in the center of the road, depending on location. He said the stored snow is typically retrieved after all the city streets are passable for vehicles. For snow removal crews, their job begins in earnest after three inches of snow has fallen over the city streets.

"The Police Department calls me when the roads get slick and I come out and check the streets. Then I call the cinder trucks. If it keeps snowing, I wait until there's three inches before I call the rest of the crew, then we start snow removal. The first thing we do is open the streets and then we come back later and open it wider," Ortiz said. "That's when people complain, they get their driveway blocked."

Crews that are being taken from their usual duties in the sanitation department and used for snow removal can also affect trash pickup. Other departments can also be short staffed, as they may often be used to help clear the streets as well.

"This is probably the worst it's been in a long time with two back to back storms," said Maintenance Supervisor Gene Owens. "My crew, I have three people, myself John and Robert. We feel the streets, trying to get the streets cleared for ambulances and stuff like that takes over the sidewalks, so sometimes I get the hind end of it. You see our city offices; we've got snow piled up everywhere. A lot of snow we get from our sidewalks ends up going out into the streets, which these guys have to haul away. I might just add that I was in Flagstaff. My aunt lives up there. Our roads are much better than theirs."


Donate Report a Typo Contact