For Cda Snowbusters, The Berm Starts Here

Sick of the snow? Who ya gonna call?

Most people apparently dial city Street Superintendent Tim Klein.

“People are all at the end of their nerves and then they call here,” he said of the annual winter marathon, now in its sixth week. They ask, “What are you going to do with the snow?”

Then there are the calls from people objecting to the waist-high berms the snowplows throw across their driveways.

Klein understands. But don’t expect big changes as long as it snows in Coeur d’Alene.

“No matter when I get home, there’s a berm,” he explained. “The mayor gets a berm. The council all get berms.

“Pray to God your back holds out and your shovel doesn’t break,” Klein offered.

The alternative is a hydraulically operated cut-off shoe, the sort of thing the plow driver engages to temporarily stop the flow of snow off the blade. They aren’t likely to show up here.

Cut-off shoes are expensive, increase plowing time by a factor of two or three, and work best on graders instead of the truck-mounted plow used most in the Lake City, Klein said.

Despite these calls, record snow, a backlog of equipment breakdowns and six weeks without a break, Klein is optimistic. All because he likes what the Farmer’s Almanac has to say.

“The Farmer’s Almanac predicted a hellacious first half the winter and the second half slacks off,” Klein said. He trusts the Almanac more than the weatherman, he says.

Klein needs a little optimism. His crew has plowed the entire city eight times this fall, nearly twice as often as normal in an entire winter.

His overtime budget - $18,500 - evaporated faster than memories of summer, as it did for about every highway district north of the Snake River. The traditional dumping ground for snow removed from the downtown business district is full much earlier than normal.

Once the backup lot is gone, Klein will be negotiating for private property to use for storing snow. Meanwhile, he’s buying extra sand, for sandbags and such, in case the spring turns out rainy and warm and the battle to keep back Lake Coeur d’Alene begins anew.

His worn-out crews didn’t get Thanksgiving off and if the snow doesn’t slack off, they won’t get to spend Christmas with their families either. “If we get hit tonight (Monday) everyone including me will be on a plow,” Klein said.

“Maybe if we are fortunate, we will get finished by 12 or 1 (p.m.) Christmas Day.”

, DataTimes