County, city crews prepared for winter

An unseasonably warm start to December isn’t fooling snow removal crews throughout the area.

While only a few flurries have flown to this point, City of Hampton and Franklin County roads departments have spent the past few months readying equipment and supplies for winter’s snowy arrival.

“We’re ready to go,” said Hampton Public Works Director Doug Tarr. “We have all the sand and salt, our equipment is ready to go, we’re just waiting on the snow.”

Jay Wad-dingham, Franklin County Engineer, said county crews have blades on trucks and sand and salt mixed for snowy and icy roads. While no major snow events have graced the county yet, Waddingham said trucks have had to do some removal and melting applications in earlier snowfalls in October. Even then, Waddingham said, the crews were ready to hit the roads when needed.

“As far as a time frame of putting the equipment on, we’re pretty consistent and usually within a week or two of when the snow starts,” he said. “We usually have our trucks ready to go in November but if it snows before that, we usually have a couple of days notice to where we can get ready.”

Waddingham said the snow removal process doesn’t change much year in and year out. Crews tackle blacktop roads first thing in the morning before graders hit the gravel roads. He said the procedure is pretty standard, but one new wrinkle this year is an abundance of personnel changes.

“We’ve got a lot of new people this year,” he said. “We have seven new blade operators and new truck drivers and a couple of new maintenance foremen.

“We have a lot of new faces but as far as the process, every-one has been told what to do and the rest, you learn by doing,” he added.

Once the waiting game is over and the snow falls, crews will hit the roads throughout the day to make sure motorists can travel safely. Tarr said that city trucks and plows begin operation once two inches of snow accumulate and typically begin at 2 a.m. Down-town roads and parking lots are the first priority, he said, and then the removal ef-forts switch to residential areas. The final step, he said, is to remove the windrows from downtown roads and clear sidewalks.

“We try to have things wrapped up by 6 or 7 a.m.,” he said.

Waddingham said county crews are out by 5 a.m. clearing blacktops and grading gravel roads and will work throughout the day until all roads have been addressed.

“We try to be in by dark,” he said. “Our written rule is that we work during working hours.”

While crews are prepared and supplies are in abundance, Tarr said they’re more than happy to wait for snow’s arrival.

“As a matter of fact, it can stay like this through April,” he said, “but we’re ready for it if it comes.”