City crews try to keep up with Wednesday’s storm

Old man winter is back in town and it doesn’t look like he’s leaving anytime soon. On Wednesday, Pocatello once again saw several inches of snow coming down at once.

City crews said they were doing all they can to keep up with the storm. Active storms, as the street operations called Wednesday’s storm, are hard to get ahead of. But plows are just trying to stay with the storm.

Tom Kirkman, street operations manager, said the city had every available resource out on the storm. It included 13 plows, employees working 12-hour shifts and working 24-hour plow coverage.

Kirman said crews will be working around the clock for the next couple of days to clear the streets.

“In an active event, which is what we have today, we’ll just focus on our main and arterial roads and we’ll just keep going over those,” Kirkman said. “What we want to do is keep emergency services, the police, the ambulance, the fire department going as well as the bus routes.”

Kirkman said once the storm subsides, crews can start working on other roads, like residential areas.

The city street operations center also is able to monitor traffic cams to see road conditions. They can see which roads are the worst, which have already been plowed and which have already had sand dropped on them.

As for residential areas, according to city code 8.14.060, each business and homeowner is responsible for clearing sidewalks. It states, “The responsible party of any premises within the municipality abutting or adjoining any public sidewalk shall be required to remove all snow and ice from any such sidewalk.” It also says, “The responsible party, following notification from city staff, has a period of twenty-four hours form the time of notice within which to correct or otherwise remove all snow and ice.”

The city also wants to remind residents it is illegal to shovel or blow snow onto the street.

One man in Pocatello said he has been shoveling a lot to keep up with the storm.

“We’ve probably done it like 5 or 6 times recently and we probably should have shoveled like 10 times,” said Tyler Johnson. “We got a lot of snow this year so it’s really an inconvenience.”

One driver who just moved to Pocatello from Florida said he’s learning to adjust his driving habits for the slick road conditions the storm brought.

“Honestly it’s a new experience for me,” said Cole Adams. “I’m definitely getting stuck so you know, trying to stay clear of the thick neighborhoods and trying to brake a little bit sooner.”