Late snow battle chews into budget

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Feb 28, 20190

--State DOT photo count

State crews use a Kodiak snow blower to chew through drifts clogging Highway 27 between Tekoa and Fairfield. The blower can cut an eight-foot swath through drifts and blow the snow away from the highway section. Crew here were at work under a blue sky to open the highway Tuesday. More wind and snow led to another shutdown Tuesday night.

--Whitman County Sheriff's Office photo count

Drifts signaled closure for Fairbanks Road in north Whitman County. Fairbanks Road runs from Seabury Road north of Oakesdale to Highway 27 north of Tekoa.

Whitman County Public Works is now in its fourth week of consistent snow operations, its main costs coming from sand, salt, de-icer and overtime wages for plow drivers.

The county road department budgeted $629,000 this year for snow removal, with no figures yet available on what's been spent.

"We got to early February and thought winter was not gonna show up, and then it did," said Mark Storey, Public Works director.

The snow fund is part of the county's $6 million roads budget for the year, which comes from $4.5 million in state gas tax and $2.5 million in local road levy collections from property tax.

"I doubt we've spent (the $629,000) yet," said Storey. "I'll let you know when it stops snowing."

Both summer road maintenance and snow works are part of the same budget.

"Whatever we spend on the weekends (plowing), we can't spend in the summer," Storey said.

In 2008, the county spent $1,060,000 on snow removal.

"It cost three or four years worth of gravel," Storey said.

Gravel projects were then paid for out of reserves.

Horizontal snow

With plows continuing as more snow falls, what is already on the ground remains a concern.

"The vertical snow doesn't scare us as much as the horizontal," said Storey, referring to drifts.

Monday night was the worst drifting yet this winter, after area schools were let out in the early afternoon to get teachers and students home before the brunt hit.

The next concern for the road department may be runoff, but reports of thawed-out ground may lessen the impact once warmer temperatures arrive.

"Ground that's not frozen can take in some of that water instead of running off," Storey said.

Shifted plans

The late snow arrival this year changed Public Works' activity as crews were prepared for road maintenance projects to start as soon as mid-February, such as vegetation control and clearing ditches of farm dirt – an annual practice to keep the roadside gulleys deep enough so water has a place to go in the event of flooding instead of over the roads.

"We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year cleaning ditches," said Storey. Whitman County has nine trackhoes, with roadside ditch-clearing as their primary function.