St. Paul prepares for "historic" and expensive snow storm
ST. PAUL, Minn. – "Historic storm" and an "all hands on deck" situation. That's the message from St. Paul city leaders ahead of this next round of snow.
The mayor, public works officials and even school administrators just shared their game plan. And while those plans do include lessons from the past, they're unlikely to make everyone happy.
The fun has already started in St. Paul. Resident and grandpa Richard Barrows says while his grandkids are looking forward to building snowmen, making a fort and having a snowball fight with him – he has his own reasons to be excited.
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"I like to ski. I'm hoping for enough snow to go back to skiing," Barrows said.
But that requires venturing out of the house and driving on city streets, where residents remain frustrated by what happened the last go-round.
"Well, I consider it kind of an off-road experience on the road," Barrows said.
City officials on Monday set the expectations that plows will hit the streets as soon as snow starts, but the priority is to clean the 300 miles of main roads and to keep them clear for first responders until there's a chance to get to the neighborhoods. That totals about 1,100 lane miles – the distance from St. Paul to San Antonio.
Sean Kershaw is St. Paul's public works director.
"We talk about Team St. Paul being all the department directors, and the departments work together. The team here also involves the public to make sure they've got a plan for the things they need at home for their families. And that they've got a plan...for where their car can be from Wednesday night to Friday," Kershaw said.
And we learned Monday that city crews earlier this month met with the fire department and school bus drivers to review about 100 slick spots. They've all been pretreated now, even with some graders to break up the ice.
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None of this comes cheap for taxpayers.
"We're talking up to $800,000 per snow emergency," Kershaw said. "That includes two daily shifts of about 70 to 80 plow drivers, plus gasoline, salt, sand and hopefully a snack."
Typically, there are four snow emergencies per winter. This week will be number six.
