Crews plowing streets in FCity

According to officials with the City of Forrest City and St. Francis County, roads are in bad shape throughout the area.

Forrest City Public Works Director Darin Flenoy said that although city workers are constantly plowing roadways, road conditions in the city are still rough.

“All over the city, road conditions are bad,” said Flenoy. “However, right now, we have three pieces of equipment out plowing the major streets first. We hope to get to the residential streets, but we are getting the main routes first. Right now, we have guys on Holiday Drive and Barrow Hill Road. With so much snow on the ground, the only thing we can do is to keep plowing.”

According to Flenoy, workers recently cleared the Grant Street parking lot in order to place a dumpster there for those residents who can get out to throw their trash away.

“We have a 30-yard dumpster in the parking lot on Grant Street,” said Flenoy. “I know that the trash is backed up, but we cannot run our trash routes with the roads the way that they are. We put this dumpster in place so that those residents who can get out will have somewhere to take their trash so that it doesn’t pile up at their homes.”

Flenoy said, however, that people should stay home due to the current road conditions throughout the city.

“If people can stay at home, I wish they would,” said Flenoy. “These streets are in bad shape and I don’t want to see residents getting hurt on these roads. Stay home, stay safe and stay warm as much as possible.”

St. Francis County Road Department Supervisor James Bradford said the snow remains deep and soft on county roads.

“The snow is pretty deep on our county roads,” said Bradford. “It is not really slick right now, but that is because it is not packed down, so people are able to get around in it fairly well. The weather service is talking like there is supposed to be more winter weather coming this way. It is a mess.”

Bradford said that although the county road department does not have actual snow plows, they have plans to use road graders to clear roads.

“We don’t have plows, but we do have road graders that we could use to plow off the snow,” said Bradford. “We don’t have anyone at this time out doing that, but we do have plans to get that done. We will start on the main roads that the grader operators usually grade. I would like to get them all, but we have to start at the main ones and work across to the rest of them. I just ask that our residents be careful and be patient,” said Bradford. “We are doing the best we can.”

More winter weather is expected over the next few days throughout the Delta.