State, county, city crews dig Knox Countians out following huge winter storm

Knox County was blasted by the worst winter storm in more than a decade this past weekend and residents and local officials were still digging themselves out as of Tuesday.

The county received more than 12 inches of snow during Winter Storm Fern, with snow falling for nearly 24 hours from late Saturday evening to Sunday evening. Knox County Sheriff Dan Weckesser placed the county under a Level 3 Snow Emergency from early Sunday until mid-day Monday. That amount of snow kept plowing crews from Mount Vernon, Knox County, all 22 townships and the Ohio Department of Transportation busy for several days.

The entities are responsible for approximately 1,000 miles of roadways around Knox County. The city, county and state all had crews out 24 hours a day beginning late Saturday evening, trying to keep the roads cleared as snow accumulated very quickly.

“The Knox County Highway Department is responsible for all county highways,” said Knox County Engineer Cameron Keaton. “When a storm impacts the entire county like this one, we send trucks out to all of the designated routes across the entire county at the same time.”

KCHD is responsible for 400 miles of county roads and began sending out 12-member crews late Saturday afternoon. The county has 13 plow routes with each route approximately 30 miles in length. The crews worked 12-hour shifts, continuing for several days. Keaton said every county roadway was plowed approximately five times from the start of the storm through Monday afternoon, and that the number of passes is based on the roadways, the direction it runs and the wind direction.

Mount Vernon had five trucks running throughout the storm and well into Monday evening. They work on the main roadways and hillier areas first, then plow the side and residential streets. According to Director of Public Utilities Tom Hinkle, each residential street was expected to have been plowed at least once by Monday evening.

“(Crews work) However long it takes to make the streets as safe as possible. I believe that by the end of today (Monday), we should have that accomplished. That doesn’t mean all streets will be melted down to the asphalt, but they should be passable,” Hinkle said.

ODOT utilized two shifts of 11 crew members that worked 24/7 from Saturday through at least Wednesday, according to Chas Cosgrave, Public Information Officer, ODOT District 5. They maintain all U.S. and State Routes in Knox County outside of city limits, covering 435 lane miles.

“During the snow, our primary goal was to plow all routes while applying salt on necessary hills and accident scenes due to the combination of low temperatures and high snowfall rates,” Cosgrave said. “We always like to remind people, during a snow event, our goal is passable not perfect. After the storm, we shifted to treating roadways with salt and brine during daylight hours to take advantage of sunlight and daytime heating to maximize their effectiveness.”

Having the county on a Level 3 Snow Emergency helped all of the departments as that level means all roadways are closed to non-emergency travel due to hazardous conditions. Crews were able to plow the roads with minimal traffic, helping them speed up the removal process.

 “The Level 3 emergency announcement enabled us to clear roads much more effectively by minimizing delays from accidents, road closures, and stranded vehicles,” Cosgrave said.

“Any time the roadways have fewer vehicles on them, it makes the job of my crews safer and more efficient,” Keaton said.

The lower temperatures, though, kept them from using as much as salt as it is not as effective when the temperature gets below 20 degrees. Crews mixed salt with gravel or brine, and even limited its use due to the low temps.

“Extreme cold certainly makes snow removal more challenging, often limiting progress to daylight hours to take advantage of minor daytime heating and sunlight, which helps our salt and brine work. During these cleanup efforts, we are primarily using brine because it provides faster results in melting snow and ice at lower temperatures,” Cosgrave said.

The storm also served as a reminder to residents to move their vehicles from the streets in the city as Mount Vernon does not allow on-street parking when more than 3 inches of snow has fallen. Residents should park in their driveways or garages during snowstorms to allow plows the opportunity to best clear the roadways.

“We need as much space as we can get to push this snow out of the way,” Hinkle said. “The more cars that are parked along the streets minimizes that ability. Every time a plow has to swerve around a parked car, it has to leave a large pile of snow behind or in front of the parked car. This pile may end up in front of someone’s driveway or mailbox. The plow driver can only do so much to avoid this from happening.

“We have a lot of residential areas that don’t really have a lot of space to push snow that won’t end up blocking something. The residents must leave these parking areas open when possible.”

With large snowplows throwing snow to the sides of the roads, it also increases the chance of damaging a mailbox. While the county bears responsibility if a truck or blade knocks over a mailbox, Keaton reminded county residents that the weight of the snow coming off of plows can be enough to break a mailbox post or knock the mailbox off its post.

“Our policy is if a county plow truck strikes a mailbox and damages it, we will replace it with a standard metal mailbox. We do not repair any damage that was caused by the snow coming off the plow of the trucks,” Keaton said.

Even though roads became passable and the snow emergency was downgraded Monday afternoon, the work continued most of this week in clearing streets and discarding piles of snow that had accumulated. Mount Vernon city crews shut down South Main Street and portions of Public Square on Tuesday to remove the piles of snow pushed into the corners of the intersections.