Equipment, planning help city staff battle Old Man Winter

Old Man Winter rolled into Mount Vernon a little earlier than expected, covering the remaining late autumn leaves in a blanket of white this past Thanksgiving. The city was socked again on Dec. 2, with a level 3 snowstorm.

Several more snowfalls have brought holiday cheer to city residents, but have caused employees of the Mount Vernon Street Department to have to scramble.

The city’s fleet of heavy duty trucks, some of which were fitted with powerful suction machines for leaf cleanup, had to be quickly refitted and dispatched for snowplowing duty.

“We came right out of leaf pickup season and straight into winter,” said Director of Mount Vernon Public Works Tom Hinkle. “Because of how quickly it started snowing, it caused us some problems. We weren’t finished with leaf pickup.”

One of the trucks was earmarked to be used to spray brine on some of the city roads. The street department had planned to use a new brine sprayer on some roads for this winter.

“The actual truck that we were going to use for this application, was still equipped for leaf pick-up,” said Hinkle. ”We thought, after the first snow was done, we could go back out for one more round of picking up leaf piles. So, we weren’t able to commit and pull the leaf equipment off of that truck and put the brine applicator in it, as much as we wanted to. The snow jumped on us too quick and we weren’t able to utilize that brine truck. Now, that we’re in January, I plan on doing that, so we’re going to try to get that brine tank installed in there. Hopefully, going forward, we can use that truck. At least, that’s the plan.”

Once the temperatures start dropping, Hinkle keeps a weather-eye on the television and internet radar to watch for storms, keeping a three or four day, look ahead in the forecast.

"Most snowfall events are relatively light and, when we know it’s not anything that would require us to prep with changing or creating schedules for our staff, then we rely on our police officers that are on-duty, during the evening, after our regular business hours. They let us know whether city roads are getting slippery or covered up,” said Hinkle. “Before the streets get too bad, they inform Knox County dispatch. Then, dispatch has a list of our staff that drive snowplows. Dispatch will call the assistant director of the street department, John May. Then, John has an overtime roster he has to use, in order to assemble a crew that has to go into work. Generally, he gets four to five staff members. Normally, we like to bring in five. After he calls in the staff, they will take care of the roads until they are safe to pass, before they go home.”

The main, arterial streets are plowed, first. The crews make sure they are safe and passable.

“They will also plow where we have steep hills,” said Hinkle. “These are in several different residential areas. We have five different routes and each route has arterial streets, hills, and bridges.”

The brick roads, like Burgess Street, Sugar Street and Hamtramck Street, which have hills, get priority as well. After that, residential streets are plowed.

“Once the regular shift shows up (7:30 a.m.), they will take over to plow all of the residential streets,” said Hinkle. “We try to get all of the slush and snow off of all of the streets in Mount Vernon before we call it a completed event.”

Bigger storms, ones that are going to take a great deal of time and man hours to manage, require a different approach. Employees are split into crews and placed onto a 24-hour schedule, in 16-hour shifts, with eight hours off. The street department gets called in, but Hinkle can also pick people from the Mount Vernon Public Buildings and Lands Department, Mound View Cemetery, and the city Parks Department, if needed.

In the bigger snow events, while the snow continues to fall, the focus is on the roads that are most traveled and the most dangerous.

“It’s more important that we take care of the mains, hills and bridges, where there is the largest potential for accidents. Also, these roads carry the mainstream of traffic,” said Hinkle. “That’s not only for the public, but also for fire, EMS, and the police department. We have to make sure that those areas are well taken care of, while the storm is going on.”

Once the snow actually stops falling, and the mains, hills and bridges are clear, then attention turns to the side streets and residential areas. That’s why planning ahead is crucial.

“That's important when you have one storm after another like we had recently, because you can only work 16 hours and then you have to be off eight,” said street department crew leader Tom Evans. “After a couple of those shifts, the guys at the department, here are beat. Snowplowing can be very mentally taxing. You're driving the plow and carrying salt, but you're also watching for traffic and parked cars.”

In his 28 years on the job, Evans has seen his share of snow-covered streets.

“Traffic is hard because people are impatient at times,” Evans said. “They don't stay back, or they'll pull out in front of you. Then, there are parked cars. I mean, some of these new developments have the wide streets and the cul-de-sacs. People still want to park in the cul-de-sac. They all have driveways and garages and yet they're on the cul-de-sac. It makes it really tough, because there's a lot of places you can't put snow. You have to watch out. You can't push it in front of a mailbox. The mailman doesn't like that, so you have to be careful what you do. If there are cars parked in the way, it makes it a real headache. The last few snow events we had, the public has been very cooperative and there weren't that many people out, which made it really easy. In fact, people stopped and let us get by. So, not everyone makes it tough. It's just a few.”

Some roads provide unique challenges to the plow drivers.

“Sometimes, multiple lane streets can be hard to do, because you can only do one lane at a time and what you have just finished plowing, gets covered up again, because of the cars in the other lanes kicking the snow back onto the lane you just plowed,” said Evans. “A lot of times we’ll take four or five trucks and try to get all the lanes at once. If a car tries to sneak in there between us, it can be tough.”

Nearly three decades of plowing through ice and snow, is risky business and one must always be on guard for trouble.

“I can remember some storms that we had where we got 10 inches and then, two days later, we got 10 more inches,” said Evans. “It was snowing hard and the wind was blowing. I remember driving up Coshocton Avenue and watching one of those electric transformers explode. That was back around the early 2000s.”

The years can get fuzzy at times, but the incidents stay in the memory, like it was yesterday.

“One year, it was around Christmas, maybe 10 or 15 years ago,” said Evans. “We were all over town, salting everything. The roads were turning to ice. The temperature was just right for that. I was on Vine Street just off of Edgewood, and I slid down Vine Street. There were cars parked on both sides of the street and I really didn't have anywhere to go. I was in a truck with eight tons of salt and it was a runaway deal. Fortunately, I managed not to hit anybody. I only hit a power pole, and no one was hurt.”

That same night, Evans saw an even closer call.

“I was backing up on the hill at Chestnut Street,” said Evans. “These three girls were walking down the hill. They were about 16 or 17, and they said they, ‘Were stuck at the top of the hill.’ Well, about that time, some guy came flying over the hill. That scared me, because I thought he was going to hit those girls. Somehow, he managed to get past everybody.”

The new brine sprayer will improve the city’s overall snow plan, and is just one innovation at the street department.

“We want to pretreat mains, hills and bridges with brine,” said Hinkle. ”We will not be pre-treating every street in Mount Vernon. We’re only going to pre-treat, where we need to pre-treat. Also, remember that brine can’t be used in all storms. If the snow is preceded with heavy rain, it will wash away the brine, and that will do no good.”

Another advance for 2026, will be the completion of a new salt barn, scheduled for this April. It will go in next to the street department facility off Old Delaware Road. This will give the city much greater salt storage capacity.

For the present, however, drivers in passenger vehicles should play it safe around the salt trucks. Exercise caution, slow down, and let the snowplow drivers do their job.

“Stay back away from the truck and let them have their space,” said Evans. “We usually work on the main streets first, before we work on the side streets, but just because the main streets are clear, doesn't mean you can drive as fast as you want. You have to watch, because sometimes, when we plow the side streets, we push stuff back on the part of the main street because we have to get out and turn around. Keep your eyes out for us. Try to be a good citizen and help us out, by slowing down and stopping, so we can turn around and get going. Don't follow us close because the salt comes off that spreader pretty hard.”