Snow still main concern on county roads

By MICHAEL SCHAFFER

OSKALOOSA — Eventually the snow will stop, the temperatures will rise and it will start raining, a scenario one Mahaska County official is planning for, but right now, his workers are still pushing the cold, white stuff.

Mahaska County Engineer Jerry Nusbaum Wednesday morning said his crews were out at 4 a.m. clearing rural roads drifted over with snow, keeping his department in snow removal mode, for now.

“Our equipment is still in snow removal operation,” Nusbaum said. “This past month has been pretty tough. This has been a most difficult winter.”

Nusbaum said one of his department’s biggest fears is seeing the county’s gravel county roads torn up from heavy semi truck traffic. He pointed out Mahaska County has more than 90 animal confinement operations and grain movement to Cargill in Eddyville that require the use of semi trucks and trailers.

“We have concerns with damage by local truckers,” Nusbaum said. “The ground is saturated.”

In anticipation of a thaw, Nusbaum said he has been in contact with gravel suppliers.

“I am in contact with Martin Marietta. They have three quarries — Malcolm, Sully and Durham — and they’ve actually changed their production in anticipation of our needs,” Nusbaum said. “We are stockpiling in anticipation at two locations in the county. We’ll address it as it comes.”

While Nusbaum said it was a bit premature to be talking about thawed roads, the calendar does say spring is three weeks away. And the county did experience a three-day mini-thaw in early January where Nusbaum’s crews put down 4,200 tons of crushed rock on problem areas at a price tag of $50,000.

“Hopefully we’re through the winter,” Nusbaum said. “But we’ve been worried about this since the thaw of Jan. 7, 8 and 9. We also had a case prior to that where we had ice back on the fifth and we put a lot of rock on that just for traction.”

Mahaska County spends more than $1 million a year on crushed rock, Nusbaum said.

Nusbaum said his department has been pushed to the limit this past year, as President Bush on three separate occasions declared Mahaska County a disaster area. Since Nov. 22, his workers have logged more than 2,100 hours in overtime.

“Overtime has never been a concern. It’s a concern, but we’ve never hesitated to do whatever overtime is necessary,” Nusbaum said. “We perhaps don’t do it as fast as everyone would like. We’ll never have enough equipment that everyone can be out at seven in the morning.”

With more than 100 miles of hard surface roads and 814 miles of gravel roads and a crew of 26 to tend to it, Nusbaum said it keeps his workers busy.

“Rule of thumb, we go at four in the morning,” Nusbaum said. “Last week, we were out at three. On ice we don’t go out until seven.”

Herald City Editor Michael Schaffer can be reached by email at mschaffer@oskyherald.com

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