City prepared for potential of more snow, slush, water

A cold wind burnished a fine glaze on Sprague Avenue on Tuesday night, but Spokane Valley Public Works Director Neil Kersten didn’t expect it to last.

He warned the City Council to expect flooded streets by today. First, though, another storm was likely to dump 2 to 5 inches more snow on Wednesday, Kersten said.

Hopefully, he said, Tuesday night’s lull would allow snow removal crews to finish plowing residential streets by Wednesday evening. About 60 percent of flat residential streets – the city’s fourth and lowest priority – had been plowed by Tuesday afternoon, Kersten said.

Primary and secondary arterials were clear, and Priority 3 streets – mainly on hills – also had been plowed, Kersten told the council. But many third-tier streets still had a 2- to 3-inch ice floor that plows couldn’t remove.

“You really can’t get into that,” Kersten said of the stubborn ice. “It just pulls your grader right off the road.”

The city contracts with Spokane County for snow removal, and has hired private crews to supplement the effort.

Seven county road graders or plow-sander trucks were operating by day and nine by night, Kersten said. And four private graders were running day and night.

He said grader crews may have to turn their attention to ice-capped storm drains if a National Weather Service flood warning, effective today through the weekend proves correct. The agency was predicting warmer temperatures, higher winds and rain.

Kersten said work crews from Geiger Corrections Center were on standby to help clear drains, and AAA Sweeping would have two street-sweeping trucks available to suck standing water off roadways.

Also, he said, the city’s two maintenance inspectors would be called out on overtime if necessary.

The inspectors have been busy patching a much higher than normal number of potholes. They applied 500, 50-pound bags of bags of cold-mix asphalt in January, Kersten said.

He said a $200,000 contract with Poe Asphalt is planned for larger pothole repairs.

The 63 inches of snow that had fallen by Jan. 31 was nearly twice the 33.6-inch average by that date each winter. The 40 inches that fell in January was the fourth-highest monthly total ever recorded, Kersten said.

There were 56.9 inches in January 1950, 48.7 inches in January 1969 and 46.5 inches in January 1954, he said.

The city’s tentative bill for sanding, de-icing and snow removal in 2007 is $752,184, compared with $245,984 in 2006, $368,782 in 2005 and $334,455 in 2004, Finance Director Ken Thompson told the council.

Only about $400,000 was budgeted last year, but Thompson said the overage was offset by savings in other parts of the street fund.

The city didn’t have to dip into its approximately $550,000 snow emergency fund last year, but probably won’t be so fortunate this year, Thompson said.

In addition to extra-high snow removal costs, the city must contend with a $387,000 shortage in the amount budgeted this year for its road maintenance contract with Spokane County.

Thompson said the problem may have been created by a clerical error in which some digits were transposed in a total that should have been slightly more than $1.4 million.

The contract amount is only 25 to 30 percent of the street fund budget, and Thompson hoped savings in other parts of the budget will help make up for the mistake.

Also, Thompson said he felt “comfortable” there will be money left over from the 2007 budget when the books are closed. Some of that carryover may be used to rebuild the snow emergency reserve if it is tapped, he said.