City ready if Wapakoneta gets hit with snow storm
This year's weather has been fairly mild, with less than three inches of snow in all of November, and no accumulation in September or October. In fact, you'd have to go all the way back to May to find any snow precipitation.
By comparison, there was over 10.4 inches of snow last November, and over seven inches last December.
But just because there hasn't been snow doesn't mean Wapakoneta hasn't prepared for the possibility.
So how is the town getting ready should it start to snow?
"We have a stockpile of salt," Floyd Gregg, director of Public Service and Safety, said. "We also have brine and beet juice that we pre- treat the roads with."
According to Gregg, one pound of salt will melt 46.3 pounds of ice at 30 degrees; however that same pound of ice can only melt 3.7 pounds of ice at zero degrees Fahrenheit.
If temperatures should dip below 25 degrees beet
juice is added to the salt brine mix provided the temperature stays at or above 5 degrees.
Wapakoneta also has nine plow trucks, and with an average time of 90 minutes to treat a road, Gregg said that if his team were to start at 5 a. m., every street could be opened by lunch time.
And should a snowfall occur unexpectedly, Gregg feels confident his snowplows won't take long to be out on the road, and said they've been ready well before there was any snow.
"They're ready to go now, so they've put the plows on the front of the trucks and tanks and things for the brine [ and] beet juice," Gregg said.
In addition to his staff, public service and safety also works with the police department.
"They drive around every day, so they're the best ones to monitor the roadways to see how they're doing," Gregg added. "And when we have some problem areas or if heavy snowfall happens they call our guys in and our guys will come in and salt and plow."
How much snow could Wapakoneta take without completely shutting down?
The first rule for removing snow is that there should be two inches of snow accumulated on the the ground.
"Basically that's just to clear the safety routes so that when our ambulances and our firetrucks need to get out to certain parts of town, they've got a clear way to get out there," Gregg said.
Gregg also said his department works with police in monitoring roadways.
"They drive around every day, so they're the best ones to monitor the roadways to see how they're doing," Gregg said. "When we have some problem areas or if heavy snowfall happens, they call our guys in and our guys will come in and salt and plow."
And if a blizzard were to slam the area?
Gregg said that except for once in the 1970s, it has never happened.