COLUMBUS, Ind. — Area residents began the process of digging out from 8 to 10 inches of snow Tuesday, with Bartholomew County officials lifting the travel ban mid-day.
Main streets in Columbus were in decent shape early Tuesday, although they were plowed again after some morning snow, said Columbus Department of Public Works director Bryan Burton.
“The streets that we have been on, and that’s mainly the mains like 25th, Central, Washington, so on — if we’ve got a plow on it, they’re very passable,” he said Tuesday. “They’re in good shape. If we haven’t got there yet, they’re pretty treacherous and slick. But we’re eventually going to get to all of them; it’s just taking us a little time. It just kept continuing to snow on us, and we just had to keep repeating the process of the same streets for quite some time before we could get into the interior streets.”
Work on those streets was scheduled for later Tuesday and Burton asked for patience and that motorists should take their time until all the streets had been cleared.
“By the end of the day, we’ll hopefully be through the whole city,” he said. “We’ll cover every street, at least have a plow on the ground and try to open it up for everybody.”
Fifteen to 20 plow trucks were at work Tuesday morning. A few were down so that crews could take a brief rest after working long hours. Burton expected salting to begin Tuesday afternoon.
Executive Director of Administration and Community Development Mary Ferdon said that the city expected to resume non-emergency services, including the transit system, and reopen city buildings on this morning.
City trash and recycling pickup were on schedule Tuesday, although some customers were moving toters through snow to get them to the curb.
Drifting snow
In the county, the largest snow drifts on county roads were in the northern half of Bartholomew County, highway Superintendent Dwight Smith said.
A number of drifts outside Clifford and Hope were as large as 3-feet high, Smith said.
“The roads have still got snow and icy patches in areas, and there is drifting snow along County Road 550N,” Bartholomew County Chief Deputy Maj. Chris Lane said.
There was only one accident where someone got hurt Monday night, but the injuries were minor,” Lane said. While deputies and other workers were pulling out abandoned vehicles for several hours, there were no accidents or slide-offs between 6:30 a.m. until noon Tuesday, Lane said.
County highway crews kept clearing roads Monday night until 9 p.m. – two hours later than Smith had originally intended to keep his workers on the roads. Four members of the county highway department spent the night in their facility on State Street to handle unexpected emergencies, Smith said.
But after a six-hour break, the main crews were back to resume plowing at about 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Despite the restrictions Monday night and Tuesday morning, highway personnel were having difficulties trying to clear intersections because too many people were on the roads, Smith said. Crew members often had to wait until vehicles coming down the road made it through an intersection before they could start to clear it, he said.
“When you have to wait for cars to get out of the way, it kind of slows you down.” Smith said. “It’s especially tough when a county road intersects with a state highway, because crews have to wait for a fairly long line of traffic.”
While two of the highway department’s plow drivers were ill at home, Smith said others stepped forward to take their place.
The highway department sent out mechanics with plows on pickup trucks to clear some subdivisions, while two staff members from the county maintenance department did the same with Bobcat plows on their pickups, he said.
A specially-equipped tractor was used on the biggest drifts in northern Bartholomew County, the superintendent said.
But breaking up all of the drifts will take more than one day, Smith said. It will take an even longer amount of time to clear 700 miles of rural roads throughout the county, he said.
“And you have to go over the same road both ways to make sure two-way traffic can be maintained,” Smith said.
While the roads just outside of Hope were largely impassable Tuesday, city workers managed to quickly clear the community’s streets, Hope Town Marshal Matt Tallent said.
During the snowstorm, there was only one minor slide-off within the town limits at about 6 p.m., Tallent said.
Hope utility superintendent David Clouse was able to stagger the schedules of his staff to reduce exhaustion while trying to keep the roads as clear as possible, the marshal said.
‘Love thy neighbor’
City workers weren’t the only ones helping fight the snow. One downtown Columbus resident, Steve Stearns, used his snow blower to clear sidewalks on his block, a square area formed by Seventh, Pearl, Lafayette and Eighth Streets. He did a little bit of the work Monday, but did more on Tuesday after the second wave of snow.
Stearns said he was inspired by the Bible’s command to “Love thy neighbor.”
“There’s not very many people who have a snowblower,” he said. “… The least I can do is help with the tool that I have.”
He added, “With the way the world is today, I think no matter what it is, no matter what struggle comes through, I think everybody should help each other.”
Foundation For Youth
Foundation For Youth was closed Tuesday due to the county’s “red” travel status. Executive Director Chuck Kime said that if there are more school cancellations this week, FFY will be able to resume offering snow day services for families.
Kime said that on snow days, the policy is for the Hope Avenue facility to be open 6 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for children to come in for eLearning support, breakfast, lunch and an afternoon snack. FFY offered this support on Monday before announcing its Tuesday closure later in the evening.
Kime said that the cost for a snow/eLearning day is $30 for non-members. A sliding fee scale is available to members.
Parents can call 812-372-7867 or email info@foundationforyouth.com for more information.
More snow?
AccuWeather is predicting Columbus could receive 4 to 8 inches of snow from Wednesday afternoon to Thursday evening, while the National Weather Service is predicting 2 to 3 inches through Friday morning.
Another 6 inches of snow is what Burton said he had heard, and while city crews could clear 1 to 3 inches fairly quickly, another 6 inches will be more difficult, given what is already here.
“It doesn’t help that it’s back to back, and the guys are already wore out, exhausted,” Burton said. “So that’s not going to help matters, but they’ll do what they can and get it done.”
City officials are watching the forecast and working to get more materials so they will be prepared, Burton said.
“We’re always concerned, obviously, but hopefully, if it’s a lot less snow, we won’t have as much a problem,” Ferdon said. “And the streets are being cleared as I speak. So we will deal with that when it happens, but right now, hopefully, we won’t see any more closures.”
–– Reporters Mark Webber and Jana Wiersema contributed to this story.
