With the second snowfall of 2020 occurring just in time for a white Christmas, now is the time to accept that it is here to stay for a while. St Paul Park had reports of 5-6 inches of snow, with 50+mph wind gusts some parts of Woodbury saw 4-6 inches. The National Weather Service did not have an official tally for Cottage Grove. 4-6 inches is not quite the 7-10 inches officially reported just to the south of us, but it is a solid effort by mother nature to give us a Christmas view we are used too. Unfortunately, that means, for Cottage Grove Public Works, the view started out from behind the steering wheel. Ryan Burfeind, Cottage Grove Public Works Director spoke with The Journal Monday morning about the recent snowstorm.

“Wednesday, for example, that was a tricky one, yeah that’s about as difficult of a storm you can deal with because you’re going from rain and 45 degrees. Those temperatures just plummeted on us, and it turned everything to ice so the timing had to be just right. If we got out too early, put salt down, and then the rain washes it all away, it won’t do anything for us,” Burfeind said.

The city has roughly 60 miles of high-volume roads, the highest and second highest traffic routes in town, which they refer to as ones and twos. They chemically treated the ones and twos starting about 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday.

Chemical treatment of just 60 miles for the ones and twos takes about two hours. Winter is upon us

From Page 1 Plow trucks, when working in residential areas are driving well under the posted speed limit. They look to be going at most, 15 mph, probably closer to 10. That means drivers are spending a lot of time going nowhere, slowly. Cottage Grove has over 190 miles of roads to plow. Newer residential streets can be cleared with two passes, older residential streets may take three passes, main roads like Jamaica and 80th take four passes. Adding up the number of passes, there are over 650 lane miles of road to plow.

Those 650 lane miles do not include highway 61 which is state cleared, or the county roads like 13, 19, etc. It also does not include the nearly 80 miles of sidewalks and trails, of which, 60 miles are plowed. The city has 13 of the large plow trucks.

“When you think about just running back to the shop to get more salt and different things each truck puts on about 100 miles on average, during a snow event,” Burfeind stated.

In actuality, the 13-truck fleet puts between 80-100 miles on per truck per snow event, that means the 650 miles of road needing to be cleared turns in to 1000+ miles of driving very quickly.

Priority plowing How does the city decide which roads are plowed first? The priority is emergency vehicle and higher volume routes, and they move to the ancillary streets and cul-de-sacs. Then repeat if needed. “Like many towns our age, our town is full of cul-de-sacs so we actually have different routes for cul-de-sacs. We use a combination of pickup plows and loaders with 10 different routes,” Burfeind noted.

Along with the 13 large plow trucks, Cottage Grove Public Works has smaller units available as well, the total fleet for snow removal is 28 different drivers each on their own route. With the inclusion of the trails and sidewalks, that math works out to be each driver is responsible for roughly 25 miles of clearing snow. Our goal is to make the roads passable in eight hours, if there’s a bigger snowstorm kind of like we had last, last week,” Burfiend said.

One downfall of being a smaller city like Cottage Grove is not having multiple plow shifts like St. Paul or Minneapolis. When the crew starts at 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday and works until 9, they need to have time to get home and get rest before coming back out on the road at 4 a.m.

Safe distances When the plows are out, please, remember to keep a safe distance from them on all sides. These vehicles are huge, dangerous and have many blind spots. The blades can also kick up stones and ice, so keep kids away from the wake. This is also why they stay away from the curbs and mailboxes. It minimizes the risk of damage to property. It is not always convenient, but neither is damaged property, and leaving a little extra snow for the homeowner to clear does not raise taxes. The difficulty with this particular snowfall regarding curbs was not having the snowbanks from a previous snowfall to help drivers see the curb, plus, 50 mph wind made visibility nearly zero. The trucks do have curb runners on the wings, but with no banks to assist, they did not want to risk any damage.

What is the city’s policy on mailbox damage? “Our policy in town is if a piece of the plow, like the wing actually strikes a mailbox, then it is the city’s responsibility to put up a temporary mailbox and replace that mailbox. If it’s just the weight of the snow, you know if you’re plowing and you got that wake of snow coming off the plow and that hits the mailbox that’s the resident’s responsibility. We encourage people to call in because we want to take a look at it and see what happened and evaluate it. If a resident sees that happening, they can always call into public works at 458-2808 and we’ll have a guy out to take a look,” Burfeind explained.

Snow Emergencies Burfeind pointed out that Cottage Grove does not issue official snow emergencies. but residents are still responsible for moving vehicles off the street if it is expected that plows will be out. Most cities issue a snow emergency when there is a snow fall of two or more inches. “Yeah, I mean that’s a good rule of thumb, it always depends on the conditions and how much snow is still on the roads, but an inch and a half to two inches is a good rule of thumb,” Burfeind said.

The official city code is: Snow and Ice Removal Between November 1 And March 31 Following: Between November 1 and March 31 following no vehicle shall be left standing or parked on the streets of the city between the hours of two o’clock (2:00) A.M. and six o’clock (6:00) A.M. on any day. At all other hours during such period, on street parking shall be permitted only when the same does not interfere with the removal of snow and ice from the city streets, and vehicles so parked shall be removed from the street by their owners. If a motor vehicle is found in violation of this subsection a police officer is authorized to issue a citation and/or have the motor vehicle removed at the owner’s expense.

Sidewalks The 80 miles of sidewalks and trails in Cottage Grove fall under two categories. Safety Sidewalks, about 60 miles, and Low use, about 20 miles. Low use sidewalks are posted with signs stating that section is closed from November 15 to April 15 of each year and they are not cleared of snow. Safety Sidewalks will be cleared by the city within 48 hours of the end of the snowfall. What does it take to clear just the sidewalks and trails? Five drivers doing their own dedicated routes.

“We use a pickup with a pickup with a plow, we have two of those and two routes to plow the trails. Then we have three of these smaller sidewalk machines that are about four-foot-wide pieces of equipment with a plow on the front, they plow on the sidewalks,” Burfeind added.

Trash service During the winter, it is recommended that trash and recycle bins are left behind the curb line and not in the street as they cause issues for plows. Because of the wake that plows can cause, trash bins can get knocked over. If this happens, it is the responsibility of the homeowner to clean up any messes made. If possible, it may be best to bring the bins down just before the garbage trucks arrive if your street has not been plowed yet. Remember, the reach of most of the garbage trucks is under five feet and drivers usually stay a foot or two out in the street to avoid getting stuck or sliding into your property, so leaving carts behind the snowplow piles does not work.

Fire Hydrants Fire hydrants are a key piece to fire safety and seconds count in an emergency. Just to the south in Hastings, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to clear a path to and around the fire hydrant on their property. No clear information can be found on the City of Cottage Grove’s website or in the City Ordinances. If you have a fire hydrant on your property, odds are you know the rules about fire hydrants. Regardless, it makes the most sense to make sure there is a clear path to and around the fire hydrant as soon as humanly possible, regardless of who’s responsibility it officially is.

Postal Delivery For your carrier to get to the mailbox, you are required to give them a clear path. If you live on a walking route, consider clearing a path through your yard to give them the shortest route possible. If you have a mailbox at the end of the drive, clear some extra space around it to make their job a little easier. If you have a larger, neighborhood mailbox on your property, remember, you are responsible for keeping it accessible.

The biggest impact you can have for helping the plow truck drivers clear the roads quickly is keep stuff out of the way. Get your cars off the road, keep garbage cans and any other potential obstacles behind the curb line.

Winter is here, like it or not. Let this be a reminder for you to be safe out there during your snow removal, shoveling is major exercise, so pace yourself. If it becomes too much for you, reach out to your neighbors or take a break.