ASHLAND — The promise of snow on its way has officials in Ashland strategizing how to best keep streets and sidewalks cleared.
Jason Counts, Ashland’s street department director, said his crew of 16 has a proactive plan to attack the ice and snow that weather models have forecasted for Wednesday night through Friday morning.
The National Weather Service issued a hazardous weather outlook Tuesday afternoon for Ashland County and much of Northeast Ohio. Meteorologists have called for 5 to 10 inches by Friday, preceded by sleet and freezing rain on Wednesday.
By Thursday, the rain is expected to turn into snow and NWS expects sub-zero wind chills Friday night.
Counts said the crew plans on hitting streets at 10 p.m. Wednesday in order to spread salt.
“That’s when the weather models are saying the rain will turn to snow,” Counts said. “We’ll then come back to plow the snow as it accumulates and keep salting. Plow, then salt, then plow again.”
The city does not use brine to pre-treat the streets — mainly because of the extra cost, he said. It would require purchasing more trucks and equipment.
Using a brine would be ineffective for this storm anyway, he said.
“The rain would just wash it away,” Counts said, adding that’s why the crew will use a significant amount of salt when it starts to snow.
“All our roads have a lot of salt on them already, but the salt will be washed away because of the rain, too. So as soon as it switches to snow, we’ll start salting,” he said.
He said the street department will have someone designated to monitor the streets’ conditions and the weather. Another safety net is the street department’s use of police officers, who will call them when snow is visibly accumulating on the streets.
The city uses nine large trucks and five or six small trucks, which are used for clearing parking lots. Its stockpile of salt is at 2,500 tons, Counts said.
The street department director said plowing the main roads — Claremont Avenue, Main Street, Cottage Street — will be the priority when the snow is falling hard.
“The side roads get put aside for a time to make sure the main arteries are cleared for police and fire,” he said.
Council members encouraged residents and business owners to clear sidewalks.
Councilman Dan Lawson said he saw an elderly person being pushed in a wheelchair “in the middle of Main Street because the sidewalks had not been cleared.”
“If it’s at all possible, it is absolutely essential that you clear those sidewalks so people don’t have to walk and run, and in this case, push a wheelchair in the middle of traffic,” he said.
Councilwoman Angela Woodward encouraged people to clear pathways for mail carriers and trash collectors.
Mayor Miller reminded people the city does not implement a parking ban, but encouraged those who can avoid parking in the streets to do so.
“When we get these deep snows and our city crews go down a street like Liberty Street or Walnut Street, where there’s lots of cars parked along the street, they do get plowed in,” he said.
An audience member also encouraged people to dig out fire hydrants that get buried in snow because of plowing.
