Public works director speaks on snow removal concerns

Published 10:46 am Wednesday, November 26, 2008

By Staff
Winter weather has arrived a little early this year and now is probably a good time to talk about our snow plowing and salting procedures for the 2008-9 winter season. As I have mentioned off and on over the past year, cuts in snow plowing and salting operations are necessary due to the continuing decline in fuel tax and vehicle registration revenues coming to the city.
The state and federal fuel taxes have not been increased since 1997 and while there has been some talk recently in Lansing and Washington about increasing the rates no action is expected to be taken any time soon. The state fuel tax revenues provide the funding to pay for snow plowing and salting, street sweeping, traffic signs, pavement marking, storm sewer repairs and maintenance, bridge maintenance, pavement repairs and resurfacing, and many other tasks. Each year since 2003 the annual state fuel tax revenues to the City of Niles have dropped while costs have continued to rise.
Over the past few years we have not replaced four positions in the Street Department and have eliminated a position at City Hall in the Department of Public Works. A common misconception is that city property taxes pay for street maintenance, which is not the case. The majority of street maintenance funds come from the state fuel tax revenues and the tax rate is a flat amount, $0.19 for gasoline and $0.15 for diesel fuel. So when fuel prices rose to over $4.00 per gallon over the last several months, the tax revenue was actually dropping because motorists were buying less gallons of fuel. When people buy more economical vehicles they buy less fuel and when the economy is bad the same is true, less fuel is purchased. And less new vehicles are being purchased resulting in less vehicle registration fees collected.
Salt prices have risen dramatically over the past few years, from $28.95 per ton in 2005 to $47.20 this year. The Street Department normally uses, on the average, about 1,300 tons of salt per winter season so the increase is significant. Because revenues continue to decline and costs continue to increase, we are faced with making some decisions that will require some citizens to make adjustments to their driving habits.
Currently we apply salt to approximately 25 miles of the total 71 mile street system. The salting operation involves applying salt on all State Highways and Major Streets, on a few Local Streets where there are steeper grades or where a higher rate of accidents may have occurred in the past, and on routes that emergency responders have identified as needing the salt application to shorten their response time to a fire, accident or medical emergency.
So you can think of our salt trucks as first responders when snowy, icy conditions exist. Typically officers from the Niles Police Department will contact the Street Superintendent when conditions warrant sending out the three salt trucks. The mission is to get salt applied to the designated areas as quickly as possible before an accident occurs or before traffic is unable to climb some of the steeper street grades, slide down a hill out of control, or slide through an intersection. State Highways and Major Streets are designed to move the greatest amount of traffic through and around the city and local streets typically carry the lower volume residential traffic that feed to the State Highways and Major Streets. The salting routes are set up so you can travel a relatively short distance on a Local Street to a State Highway or Major Street where the pavement will be in better condition for travel and you'll be on your way to your destination.
The salt trucks do not plow streets that are not on an approved salting route. Having the salt trucks plowing on routes that are not approved will cause delays in getting the routes treated and could potentially cause an accident due to the delay. Many times if conditions are bad enough the salt trucks will go back through the same streets again and continue to apply salt for a second, third or even fourth application of salt. There are times when the salt trucks are called out when only an inch or two of snow has fallen due to the more heavily traveled or steeper roads needing attention to eliminate the slippery conditions.
But in those cases when there is a light snowfall and we have salt trucks out we don't normally call in the remaining eight man crew to plow all streets curb to curb unless it is continuing to snow and conditions are worsening. There are exceptions to the salting operation, such as when very icy conditions exist throughout the entire city (such as from an ice storm) that requires special attention. In those instances, salt trucks will apply salt and sometimes sand to prevent accidents, mostly at the intersections throughout the city.
Because of the budget situation we are forced to make cuts, much like the Michigan Department of Transportation and many cities and counties throughout the state have done or will be doing. If you drive over to Cass County you can see the impact of wintertime budget cuts, something they started a couple of years ago.
We will be cutting back on salting operations on parts of our street system that have traditionally had salt applied in the past and will be working with the Niles Police Chief and Niles Fire Chief to develop and implement the changes. Overtime will be shaved whenever possible, therefore during a storm all roads will be plowed but some may not be plowed curb to curb until employees are back to working their normal daytime shift.
As much as we try we can't please everyone. We want you to get to work on time, get your kids to school on time, make sure your newspaper and mail gets delivered, and we certainly don't want you to get your car stuck in the snow.
We strive to get every street in the city cleaned as quickly as possible and sometimes, on a rare occasion, we may forget to plow a street and please let us know if we do. These cuts are being forced on us due to the current poor economic conditions but we are committed to doing the best job possible with the funds that we have available to us.