City crews were busy in Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Brier after an early winter storm blew through the region Nov. 26-29, dumping as much as 4-inches of snow in South Snohomish County.
In Mountlake Terrace, cars crawled along at a snail’s pace but the city had no serious problems because the snow and flooding wasn’t an issue, said Larry Walters, public works director.
“We were already out sweeping, trying to get up more leaves in case we got more rain,” he said.
Workers put in some overtime hours after snow arrived on Sunday, Nov. 26.
“The biggest impact was we used more sand than we used in previous years,” he said, adding that workers used 225 cubic yards of sand, equal to the capacity of about 10 large dump trucks.
That sand added traction, especially along hilly portions of the city, Waters said.
“We’re in a scramble now to get it swept up before it gets into our catch-basins,” he said.
Unlike some cities, Mountlake Terrace doesn’t use chemical de-icer to melt snow. Nor does it use salt, which Waters said has not been “that useful.”
The city has four snow plows, two large and two small ones.
“We added a fourth one last year to just deal with parking lots for city facilities,” he said.
Overall, he said, the city wasn’t caught off-guard by the snow storm, though getting police patrol cars ready for snow conditions proved a challenge.
“Wednesday night (Nov. 21) when we all went home, it didn’t look like we were going to have much snow to worry about,” he said. “We had to get one of our mechanics back in to chain up some vehicles.”
At the Lynnwood Goodyear store, 19805 44th Ave. W., business was up.
“We had an increase in tire sales as well as snow chains, probably 50 percent more than normal,” said Roland Howell, service manager.
The city’s snow crews were prepared for the storm, said Bill Franz, public works director for the city of Lynnwood.
The city’s seven snow plows were all used and three of them were clearing streets the first day of snowfall.
“We had people working around the clock for that week, just in case,” Franz said.
Crews worked some overtime hours, “but it was necessary and prudent,” he said.
Lynnwood street crews used de-icer to clear snow.
“I was just really pleased and I’ve heard from residents and council people that they were really pleased with how travelable our streets were,” Franz said.
Other than a stranded Community Transit Bus and a few fender benders, Brier had its streets under control, said Rich Maag, public works foreman for the city.
“It actually went pretty good, really,” he said. “That Monday night was the worst.”
Snohomish County Public Utility District workers faced some of the harshest and most challenging condidtions responding to power outages.
“It was some of the heaviest snow we’ve seen in quite some time,” said Neil Neroutsos, spokesperson.
Remote areas in northern Snohomish County presented those workers with major obstacles. In some cases, crews needed snowmobiles to get to high-voltage power lines.
“We had about 500 separate incidents of lines coming down,” he said. “Each one of those could take up to several hours each.”
PUD crews worked 40 hour shifts, then got an eight-hour break, followed by another 40 hour shift, if needed.
“There were people who were actually into their third 40-hour shift by the end of the week,” he said.
PUD crews from other parts of the state helped out, too.
“We had 99 crews in the field, which is the most crews we’ve ever had in the field at once,” Neroutsos said.
Snow led the Edmonds School District to cancel school for three days, upsetting some parents.
Two make-up days are already designated for snow make up: June 21 and 22, 2007. That extends the school year by two days.
The make-up date for Wednesday’s snow day will have to be negotiated, as the law requires, with all associations, said Debbie Jakala, district spokesperson.
If there are more snow days in the future, other make-up days would have to be negotiated as well.
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