The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
The most snow received in town thus far in a day: 2.8 inches
The state of the streets has made some people in Crested Butte unhappy and public works director Rodney Due is hearing about it. “We have received lots of comments this past week,” Due told the Town Council at its November 21 meeting. “Most of them haven’t been exactly supportive.”
Due said the town crews have done some winter street maintenance after the first two storms of the winter season. “But it hasn’t been enough for some people. I thought I made it clear to the council that the new three-inch policy where we plowed after a three-inch snow event would go into effect December 1 if I was able to hire the personnel. Until then, we are staying with the six-inch rule. I’ve received three or four applications and hopefully we’ll get two that are properly qualified to fill out the night crew.”
Due has said he is also a person short on the plowing crew at the moment due to some medical issues. Due reported to the council that even if the three-inch rule was in effect, it hasn’t yet snowed three inches in a 24-hour period in Crested Butte.
“I looked at the NOAA [National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration] figures for the month, and last week we had one day where it snowed two inches and the next it snowed 2.8 inches,” Due said. “People are telling me it snowed six or seven inches. It didn’t. That’s perception versus fact. We measure it in a 24-hour period. It’s not three or six inches in a week. We have a web cam on the town website that we monitor. It’s located out of the wind by the bus barn. We have our guys that live in town measure it as well.
“We do our best and we’ll be out there and we are gearing up,” he continued. “But sometimes the wind blows and it accumulates in certain areas of town. The warm daytime temperatures played a part as well. We were asked why we didn’t plow when it was slushy during the day. But we don’t want to barricade people’s cars in with a bunch of slush that turns to ice. That wouldn’t make people happy. It’s that time of year and we do what we can. We live at 8,800 feet.”
“I heard complaints from people living on the west side of town and compliments from people on the east side of town,” said Councilperson Jim Schmidt. “There is more sun and more melting on the east side. I’m confident that when you hire these new guys, you’ll do a great job this winter.”
“I think there was an expectation by the public that the snow plan went into effect when we approved it instead of December 1,” said Councilperson Glenn Michel. “It was a lesson I learned from this. There is a lag time.”
“It’s just like approving the 2012 budget in November of 2011,” said town manager Susan Parker. “Funding and holding the snow summit with the contractors were part of the equation in the big picture.”
Due will be interviewing potential snowplow drivers and hopes to have the expanded crew on the streets by the first of December.
