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JANESVILLE — Many Janesville residents have waited impatiently since Thursday to have their street plowed.
Tuesday night the trucks hit every street in town.
The city started plowing main roads Tuesday morning, Assistant Operations Director Mandy Bonneville said. Just before the department called a snow emergency at 3 p.m., trucks started on residential streets, she said.
Plows finished residential streets at 10 p.m. and then did another full pass on the main roads, Operations Director John Whitcomb said.
“It was the worst set of conditions you can experience,” Whitcomb said about Tuesday’s icy, rainy storm. “And it was a very fine line between what we got and what other folks got. I don’t know about Beloit, but Madison got much more snow. I would’ve rather had the snow.”
When it comes to plowing, everyone has a different opinion about how it should be handled, said Ben Coopman, Rock County public works director.
“There are people who complain we’re out there plowing and people who complain we’re not out there,” Coopman said. “Some say we plowed too narrow; others say too wide.”
Whitcomb said when or if plows hit the streets is determined by many factors, not the least of which is cost to taxpayers.
“Nobody’s ever told me to not plow snow, but you still need to manage your resources prudently,” Whitcomb said.
Cost of snow
That being said, the city headed into this snow season $168,000 over its snow removal budget for 2007.
The county is in a similar fix.
Rock County had an “ugly” January and February, Coopman said. Piling that onto this month’s unusual snowfalls has forced the county to go over its snow removal budget by about $180,000, County Administrator Craig Knutson said.
According to Janesville Gazette weather records, the Janesville Wastewater Treatment Plant measured this much snow:
-- 11.02 inches in January
-- 22.56 inches in February
-- 16.01 inches so far this month through Tuesday, not counting an additional half inch of non-snow precipitation Tuesday.
The most likely fix to the budget problem will be cutting back on work in the summer, Coopman said. The public works committee could go to the county board and ask for more money, but that’s not likely, he said.
When to plow
The decision to plow or not gets made differently depending on the storm, Whitcomb said. So far this season, he thinks the city has done a good job making the calls.
But a decision last week has prompted many residents to call the department, Whitcomb said.
The city got 2 inches of snow Thursday, and more was predicted for Saturday. Whitcomb decided to hold off and hit the streets once for both storms.
But the second snowfall never came, so the city never plowed. Instead, crews only hit the main roads with salt, which is protocol for snowfalls up to 2 inches.
As the weather warmed, the snow on residential streets got slushy and prompted many residents to complain, Whitcomb said. But the city thought it was best to wait until Tuesday’s storm before plowing the whole city.
Lots of residents called to complain about the five-day gap, Whitcomb said. Residents also called The Janesville Gazette and commented on www.gazettextra.com.
“Our street (Sandhill Drive) was virtually impassable today. And it hasn't been plowed in at least four to five days ... probably longer,” a writer with the username baegucb wrote on www.gazettextra.com late Tuesday night.
Some readers complained the wait for plowing was longer.
“My street has not been plowed in weeks,” a writer with username jade wrote Tuesday morning. “I would like to know where my taxes are going.”
The city normally salts for snowfalls of up to 2 inches, Whitcomb said.
“As long as safety isn’t compromised, some of those 1½- to 2-inch snows … we won’t plow.”
Readers complained about how county roads were plowed, too.
“Janesville’s roads have been wonderful,” a writer with username chelleandlou wrote early Tuesday evening. “If you think they’re bad, travel County A and Townsend Road. I grew up out there and have NEVER seen such a terrible job in plowing. I think Rock County better start training these people rather than just handing them keys to a truck and say go at it.”
It’s the shape of the roads—not the number of inches—that determines when the county hits the roads, Coopman said.
“Once we get the report that it’s slippery, we get out there and deal with what’s out there,” Coopman said.
Generally, the public works department waits for a report from local law enforcement that the roads are getting bad, he said. That often happens in the middle of the night, so the drivers get called in at 4 a.m.
There’s not much traffic before then, Coopman said, and it allows plow trucks to get a good run at the roads before the morning commute.
If the snow has stopped when the plows make the first pass, drivers will salt the roads, Coopman said. But if snow or rain still is falling, salt’s a bad idea. It’ll turn into slush, he said.
Things will look a whole lot better by the end of today, Whitcomb told the Gazette this morning.
“The streets are going to clear up fine today,” Whitcomb said. “Once the sun gets up and the temperature rises, we’re going to see vast improvement everywhere.”
Dec 13, 2007 at 2:41 p.m.
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There are people who aren't healthy enough to shovel snow, nor financially able to pay for it to be done, or to move to a warmer climate. To classify everyone as lazy is obnoxious.
Dec 13, 2007 at 8:04 a.m.
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Perhaps if both the city and/or county would have purchased snowfall insurance (yes, there is such a thing) then they would not have to divert funds from summer projects to pay for the snowfall clean up.
Snowfall is impossible to predict a year in advance, so setting a budget is also impossible. Instead, why not set a budget that covers most winters and then buy insurance to cover the excessive years.
Dec 12, 2007 at 10:58 p.m.
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Kianna28: taxation without representation is not what you say it is. what your talking about would be getting taxes imposed on us without having representatives in the house or senate.
Dec 12, 2007 at 10:12 p.m.
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We know where we live and we know that it snows. That does not mean that we should except substandard services. If surrounding communities can insure safe passage for their residents (like walworth county) why can't ours?
I am talking about county roads not city. Up to this year janesville has done a good job.
Dec 12, 2007 at 9:50 p.m.
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Blame the Teachers!
Dec 12, 2007 at 9:20 p.m.
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I agree. We live in wisconsin. It snows here. Get used to it. Get up off your lazy butt, pick up a shovel, and get to work.
Dec 12, 2007 at 7:54 p.m.
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For all that we have been handed in the last week of this white crap and ice, I think the city has done a pretty good job. I did think yesterday afternoon most roads were pretty slushy and needed to be cleaned up. They took care of that last evening. I live on a main road and the plows go by often. Yes, it is nice to have a clean main street but it is also a hassle to have to shovel the bottom of the driveway after each time they go by. We have been lucky for years to not get slammed with these types of storms. Unfortunately, the last week we got dumped on pretty heavy. Overall, I think the street crews need to be applauded for their timely clean-up of the white crap!
Dec 12, 2007 at 6 p.m.
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IF YOU DONT LIKE IT MOVE TO A STATE THAT DOES NOT GET SNOW HELLO YOU LIVI IN WISCONSIN PEOPLE
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:52 p.m.
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Suggestion: Walk away from the keyboard and continual complaints and pick up a shovel. It is a good form of exercise, a more constructive way to release stress, and of greater benifit to the community and your neighbors.
In my day we had to shovel the front walk with a spoon, it was uphill both ways, and we couldn't play with our tinker toys till it was spotless.
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:47 p.m.
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I take that back--I WAS frustrated with the plow drivers when they were filling in my driveway, but I realize there's nothing they can do with the snow besides push it around and onto my terrace. And into the end of my driveway...
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:45 p.m.
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Yes, I was frustrated too with having to shovel about 8 times over the past week. Especially from 7:30-9pm last night on my .10 acre lot, chipping away at ice and inciting pain. I wasn't frustrated with the plow drivers. I was frustrated with the massive amount of precipitation we've gotten! And how much of it I've had to lug around--I could barely chuck the snow to the top of the mounds at the end of my driveway, but I do think the plow drivers did well last night on the main streets. I grew up on a "back" street, so we'd often get stuck in the snow after major snow falls. Here's to hoping the "speed bumps" have been softened up and tamped down!
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:29 p.m.
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I am just stating the facts of how my day went with some frustration showing. I do think they need to plow before a street becomes impossible for a two wheel drive car to navigate.
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:29 p.m.
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Kianna28, taxation without representation? Are you serious? And here I thought you were represented by the council members just like the rest of the city! WOW! Just because your taxes are higher (due to appraised value) doesn't mean that your street is more important.
On a less sarcastic note, I thought the plow crews did a good job. It took 7 hours to plow the residential streets and then they went back and hit the main streets again. This was after plowing the main roads all day long to keep them passable. Think about how long of a day that was for the drivers.
My only other comment is that there is always a fund shortage in the plowing account. Maybe the budget writers should just admit that it will take more than they have been estimating and build that into the budget right away? It is always easier to have extra money than to figure out where to cut it later because the weather decided to pound on us.
Dec 12, 2007 at 3:06 p.m.
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I hope that the people who choose to complain on these forums are taking the next step and voting for new city council members or county board members, if you are concerned about taxation without representation. Better yet, you should make a campaign and run for a position! Then the power would be in your hands to represent the very people that you feel are not being represented! So many people are talking about how high our taxes are and demanding more city services--doesn't it seem taxes will continue upwards if we continue to demand increases in services? If only snow were worth money in Janesville...
I don't have any idea how to operate a city's snow removal operation. I choose to leave these decisions in the hands of experts, not critics.
Dec 12, 2007 at 2:32 p.m.
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I got stuck in the street in front of my house at 4:30 yesterday afternoon coming home from work. After clearing my driveway, I had to wait until 9:40 pm. to go out and throw my back out shoveling out the mess the plow made before it froze. Unfortunately the plow never cleared the slush it pushed in the cross street so I still had to drive over a 18" speed bump this morning at 6:00.
Dec 12, 2007 at 2:23 p.m.
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Our street, Ashberry Dr, with the sun and warmer weather is still awful. Last night at around 7:30 PM, the plows FINALLY plowed our street. All they did was push a ton of wet, heavy snow into the bottoms of our driveways. There is still a layer of ice about 1-2 inches thick on the road. Neighbors got stuck in their own driveways this morning. We have several older neighbors and that wet heavy crap would have been much easier to deal with in waves rather than all at once! I am disgusted with this city. I am sure we pay higher taxes than some homes on the roads further in town, yet we are the last ones to get plowed. Taxation without representation...hmmm... wasn't that the basis for the Revolutionary War???
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