City official says if snow falls early, they are prepared

EAU CLAIRE — While the city of Eau Claire will not begin officially preparing for snowfall for the next few weeks, Streets and Fleet Manager Aaron Nicholson said the city is well prepared to tackle snow if it should arrive early.

"You never know when the first snow is going to come," said Nicholson. "At the end of (the) last (snow) season, we did an inspection of all the trucks. We did all the repairs that were there at the time. It would take just a few minutes to put the front plow under the trucks."

He also said that due to the last two winters being slower, "both our salt sheds are full of material, so we're fully ready for this winter as far as that goes."

Still, in the upcoming weeks of October, the vehicles will be inspected again for the full winter season.

"October is kind of our big starting point," he said. "In the next few weeks, we'll start re-inspecting the trucks and making sure that everything is good, (but) a lot of that happens in the springtime, so that when we put the trucks away, they're ready to go, so we're not in a frantic state come fall."

The team has about 30 trucks within the fleet located in downtown Eau Claire, and the full-time street crew, composed of 33 individuals, is required to live no further than 45 minutes from the facility. During the summer, the team works on street sweeping, crack sealing and spray patching, street painting, and a number of other tasks.

"We have employees that have been here for 25 years and we have some that just started," he said. "They all have experience, even the newer employees."

He said that when the weather forecast indicates snow is coming, "We have a staff of 13 operators that are put on call."

These operators stay home waiting for the supervisor to decide to call them in. The supervisor utilizes traffic cameras and other technology to monitor the road conditions across town.

"Once the supervisor sees that we've had enough snow coverage on the streets, they'll call the 13 operators," said Nicholson. "They'll come and inspect their trucks real quick before they hit the road and head out to their assigned routes."

Some streets, such as Hastings Way and Golf Road, have a bare pavement policy. Nicholson said, if possible, these streets are kept as snow free as possible throughout the winter. There are then secondary routes with a little less traffic that get plowed less frequently.

"That's going to be a lot of your schools, churches, businesses, a little bit higher traffic value than a residential street," he said.