Snow removal, the good, the bad and the unfortunate

Remnants of last weeks 3 day snow fall and over 30 inches of snow are still lingering. This evening, the Marquette County Board went over what went right and what went wrong with the snow removal process.

Commissioners say they received numerous complaints from residents but according to the road commission, everything went as planned. Residents just aren’t aware of the process, the budget, equipment failure and reduced employees working in the field.

“People wanted to know why we weren’t there sooner but we were there based on our plan. When we are having huge snowfalls like we had last week our guys are working 12 hour shifts,” said Jim Iwanicki, Marquette Road Commission Engineer Manager. “The plow routes are set up for 12 hour shifts. The first priority is state highways and then the major county roads and then we go a little bit lower to those that are a little less traveled. the last thing we do is subdivisions, dead end roads. When we have to go back to the main route or second priority, we don’t have time to go to the subdivision roads or the dead end roads and plow them shoulder to shoulder. What we end up doing is punching a hole and doing a one pass, just enough to get somebody in and out but not go shoulder to shoulder. Not get it so their mailbox is easy to get to,”

Wanicki said at one time, there was a staff of 100 but now he is working with just 75. Also adding to some of the delays was a few trucks breaking down as many are 25–30 years old. Commissioners felt that under the circumstances the road commission did the best they could with the equipment and resources they have.