'It snowed too fast for our 51 trucks to keep up with': Waukesha County still digging out
The aftermath of a storm that left most places in Waukesha County looking like a scene from "The Day After Tomorrow" has created another type of surge: public complaints.
Ice-packed roads and tall piles of snow have drawn out some residents who, frankly, want to know what public works officials are doing about it. The answer is essentially whatever can be done, which in some cases meant they were doing well under unusual circumstances.
In a Jan. 16 email blast, Waukesha County officials acknowledged as much.
"When vehicles drive over the snow and the temperature drops rapidly, the snow and ice become compacted to a point where the plows are no longer effective at removing the “hard pack.” It snowed too fast for our 51 trucks to keep up with," the county stated in a news release fashioned as a question-and-answer summary.
Conditions were right for tough sledding in road clearing
Wet snow that fell at a rate of an inch per hour for 10 hours on Friday followed by a rapid freeze late in the weekend challenged plow drivers, who also had to stop their work in some cases to remove downed tree limbs that snapped under heavy snow and high winds. The slow work allowed icy roads to take hold, county officials said.
Their only hope was forecasted temperatures climbing into the teens under sunshine, which should help melt the ice pack and give crews another chance to scrape it all up. Crews are also playing catchup to remove the tall piles of plowed snow, which some have complained blocked their views of traffic at county road intersections.
The county also acknowledged its limited budget, which wasn't built for a snow blitz so extreme. "We are staffed at a level that handles most storms well. In this case, the storm had what is the equivalent to half of an average winter’s snowfall in just one week," officials said.
Cities dig out, too, under complaints and praise
Waukesha County wasn't the only governmental unit under pressure to clean up after the storm. City officials, including those in the county's largest municipality, noted similar difficulties, though with some public appreciation.
"We have received complaints, but the majority of comments on social media have been supportive," Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said in an email. "Plowing seems to have gone well. The biggest problem was tree limbs down and electrical lines down. The limbs could not be cleared until We Energies took care of the electrical lines and that also kept that portion of the road from being plowed."
Snow piles in downtown Waukesha and cul-de-sacs were the target of public works crews this week. The piles should be on the move soon, Reilly said.
In the southeastern corner of Waukesha County, Muskego Mayor Rick Petfalski said praise for the city's snow-clearing efforts quickly gained traction, to his relief.
"Our DPW crews are great! I have only received very positive comments about the great job they did and how our city roads were so much better than the county or other communities around us," Petfalski said, noting that even on social media, in places where the city has sometimes faced criticism, people's reactions were positive.
For his part, Petfalski praised the city's public works superintendent, Ryan Beilfuss, for leading the team.
In Oconomowoc, in the northwestern corner of the county, Public Works Director Jason Herzog said people have also been understanding as crews catch up, but it's a storm that forced the city to improvise against a surprising storm. City workers outside his department made it possible.
"Our guys stepped up," Herzog said. "I'll be honest. We can't complete a full clearing operation with just DPW guys. We expanded our full service into our wastewater and water departments, our electric department, our parks department — so we had five full departments with guys that just knew the storm (was intense). .... We normally wouldn't reach out to everybody like that."
It meant nine long days for snow crews, he added. The community responses were mixed, with some people appreciative but others upset about the timing of when the plows came through their neighborhoods.
Contact reporter Jim Riccioli at james.riccioli@jrn.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Waukesha County, cities still catching up on snow cleanup efforts
