Snow removal vastly improves over time
The largest snowstorm since 1995 has made snow removal a hot topic in the past few weeks, so it makes sense to talk about the evolution of this important city service.
In 1960, when I joined the City of Columbia staff, the Street Department’s main tactic in fighting snowstorms was to shovel cinders generated by the city power plant off the back of dump trucks. The city used only a small amount of chemicals. Road graders, used to grade streets in good weather, were the only equipment available to remove snow from the streets. Columbia had two of them.
Back then, city budgets were very tight and snow removal was not seen as a priority. We cleared a few main streets as best we could, and people made do until the snow melted. Some joked that it was a very environmental way to clear streets. Many small towns still operate in a similar manner; usually only large cities could afford snow removal equipment.
Some of our equipment was military surplus from World War II and the Korean War.
However, in 1962, the city found funding to purchase its first cinder spreader and snowplow. Attached to our existing dump trucks, the spreader and snowplow made the job much easier for workers. Over the next several years, the city was able to budget more money to purchase more snow plows and cinder spreaders. Today, the city owns 17 dump trucks and four pickup trucks, all with attached snowplows, and four road graders.
In 1963, the city purchased a compactor dumpster refuse truck as part of our effort to create a better city solid waste system, and my bright idea to use it for snow removal led to the creation of, as they would come to be known in city lore, the world’s largest ice cubes. The truck would scoop the snow piled in the center of the street, load it and compact it. Giving the new dumpster truck the double duty of hauling snow was a great idea at first. Unfortunately, after a few loads, icy snow stuck inside, and before long we created mammoth ice blocks that rendered the dumping mechanism inoperable, making the truck useless for its primary purpose of dumping the large metal refuse containers. Of course, if we had been a little more savvy at the time, these frigid monuments to my ingenuity might have made a great exhibit to pull tourists off the highway! We experimented with equipping garbage route trucks with snowplows, as larger cities do, but this effort was abandoned because it meant we could not pick up garbage on schedule.
In the 1960s, we obtained two-way radios for the first time, which allowed us to communicate with our trucks and better coordinate our snow removal efforts. We purchased the radios with a civil defense grant for emergency purposes, and they came in handy in the trucks during snowstorms.
In those days, the Street Department operation was conducted from the west side of the existing city police building. Some of the space was covered, but mechanical work on large equipment had to be done outside on a concrete surface left over from a building that had been previously removed. Superintendent Leo Lorton led the Street Division of the Public Works Department, and Ralph Grissum supervised the maintenance work. Leroy Anderson later replaced Leo, and Charlie Williams replaced Ralph when he retired. Leon Walden provided overall supervision for several field operations until he retired. Several engineers including Dennie Pendergrass, who supervised the operations for more than 30 years before retiring recently, replaced Walden.
Our field supervisors, Lorton, Anderson and Grissum, were inspirational leaders who worked day and night as necessary. A lot of equipment maintenance was conducted out in the field under Grissum’s direction, some in sub-zero weather. Because of his enthusiasm and inspirational leadership, the Public Works operational center was named for Grissum a number of years before his death.
The city stored salt and barricades next to the University Power Plant on city-owned property south of Elm Street adjacent to the railroad tracks. There were tracks in the middle of the street at the Katy Station, along with a railroad dock that we often used to bring in equipment and supplies. Working with former Chancellor Barbara Uehling, and former vice chancellors Duane Stucky and Kee Groshong, the city later traded the land to the university in a swap that resulted in the extension of Elm Street and the construction of the Walton Building, which houses the Columbia Convention and Visitors Bureau, Chamber of Commerce and Regional Economic Development Inc.
In the late 1960s, I put $50,000 into the city budget for a bulk salt storage facility, but it was not approved. Councilman Pat Barnes questioned why we needed that much money for a “salt shack.” So we kept storing the salt in bags, and we trucked cinders from the city power plant and Cosmo Park. My final budget (No. 22) for last year included about half a million dollars for a modern salt storage facility being constructed east of Highway 763, north of Bear Creek, where a concrete plant once stood.
The city organized its snow removal operation by dividing Columbia into quadrants and assigning equipment and people to handle each quadrant. At first, employees worked many long hours, but later, they were assigned to 12-hour shifts. First priority went to clearing runways at the airport, which was located where Cosmo Park now sits; then downtown and arterial streets, followed by collector streets; roads near schools, hospitals, university and colleges; city bus routes; school bus routes; hilly areas; and residential streets and streets serving churches on weekends. In the early 1960s, the city began hiring part-time workers in the summer months for street maintenance and they could be called upon to clear snow in winter.
We plowed snow into the center of the street, a practice that still continues downtown, because there were many downtown basement areas located under the sidewalk that were susceptible to leaks. I recall using a military surplus belt conveyor machine to load snow from the center of Broadway. It was sub-zero weather, and I recall helping to direct traffic when the machine quit working. Grissum fixed it on the spot so we could clear Broadway. Our dedicated employees always come out at all hours, day and night, and holidays were no exception.
Although people complain about cinders dirtying their carpets, cinders are cost-effective because they are a power plant byproduct and they provide good traction and better melting capability at low temperatures. Also, residents could easily tell that we were working! Interestingly, salt can damage carpets, but the damage is not as visible as it is on vehicles. However, because of complaints, we used chemicals downtown instead of cinders and mixed some chemicals with cinders in other parts of the city. Sometimes the city has used limited amounts of sand, but sand, unlike cinders that float, clogs storm sewers.
We also hauled excess snow, taking it east over the old one-lane bridge on Broadway and dumping it on land near Hinkson Creek. Another location for our excess snow, used until this year, was the rock quarry owned by N.R. Garrett on Creasy Springs Road next to Cosmo Park, which he made available to the city without cost. This year, the city is using the old Osco lot. We leased equipment from the rock quarry, rented three or four motor graders from local contractors and borrowed equipment from other city departments.
Columbia’s continued emphasis on improving streets, begun in the 1960s, has helped lessen the impact of winter storms. More than 60 miles of unimproved streets were reconstructed. Without a good base under the city streets and highways, harsh winter weather can do much more damage. I recall that in the past there were many more complaints about potholes and unimproved streets that were costly to maintain.
Columbia is situated neither in the Sun Belt nor the Snow Belt. We rarely get huge snowfalls such as the one that arrived two weeks ago. Usually, they happen about every 10 years, and it was difficult to budget specialized equipment for our normally limited snowfalls. Our street operations budget includes both street maintenance and snow removal. If more snow removal funds are used than for an average season, the city may run short of street maintenance funds later in the year unless a special appropriation is made by the City Council.
Columbia’s drivers come from all over the country and the world. Some have never seen snow before, while others often don’t understand why the city doesn’t have much in the way of equipment like they do in northern cities. Although we have much more capability today than we once did, it still isn’t always fast enough for some residents.
After this recent snowstorm, the idea of snow routes, like those in many major northern cities, may come up again. The idea of designating snow routes along which no cars may park during snowstorms has been debated over the years, and I even prepared a map of potential snow routes for the City Council once, but the ordinance, following public hearings, has never been adopted. Some people were opposed to the possibility that cars would be towed from snow routes if not moved in time.
Over the years, Columbia has experienced both light and fluffy or heavy and wet snows, which require special handling. We also have experienced terrible ice storms, which are the worst, leaving trees over power lines in yards and across streets. We were lucky to avoid ice this time around, unlike St. Louis, much of which was without power for days.
It’s easy to be critical of the city’s efforts, and the city reviews its response to snowfall events to see if it can improve its procedures the next time around. All along, the city makes its best effort with the budget resources available. Columbia is fortunate to not have a great number of heavy ice and snowstorms.
Columbia is also fortunate to have a good relationship with the Missouri Department of Transportation, which does a good job of keeping major thoroughfares clear throughout our city. When bad weather does occur, our city continues to put forth its best effort to get Columbia back to normal as quickly as possible.