A city like Cortez can save some money during a light winter. It comes with more serious costs, though.
In 2018, Cortez budgeted $60,000 on salt and sand to help with snow removal but ended up spending $27,000. When that money isn’t used, it goes right back into the general fund. If Cortez Public Works Director Phil Johnson had the choice of saving that money or getting a good dose of snow, he would take the snow.
“I want to get buried,” Johnson said. “Our snow is our water.”
If Cortez does get buried this winter, Johnson and his crews will have some help. The city in November entered into a contract with Daniels Concrete for supplemental snow removal. It is the second year in a row that city has entered into the contract, but with just 8 inches of snow during the entire 2017-2018 winter, there was no need to use the extra help last year.
Johnson said Public Works repurposes dump trucks into snowplows in the winter, leaving few options for hauling snow piled up on Main Street. Daniels Concrete has agreed to be on call 24/7 with a front-end loader, a dump truck, a backhoe, a motorgrader, a snowplow and equipment operators at hourly rates. The contractors were called in last week to help haul snow off Main Street.
“It’s better to be prepared for something and have a tool and not need it, than need one and not have it,” Johnson said.
The specific plan of attack during a snowstorm can often depend on the weather, but in general, Cortez uses maps with routes for snow removal and sanding, Johnson said. If it’s less than 2 inches, workers will repeatedly sand intersections to give some traction, but might not use plows.
They spray a brine mixture on both lanes on Main Street – the Colorado Department of Transportation reimburses the city for time and equipment on the state-owned road – and up a hill on Sligo Street.
The city replaced magnesium chloride with a brine solution for ice and snow about seven years ago, Public Works Superintendent Don Royce said. He said magnesium chloride works at a lower temperature, but it’s more expensive and less environmentally friendly.
The usual plowing routine is slightly different this year with the addition of the Main Street medians. Johnson said the city is going through an “adjustment period.” In the past, he said, crews could pile snow in the middle of Main Street for a while, but now it has to be removed faster because there’s less space for traffic.
“We’re still evolving,” Johnson said. “We’re still figuring out how to make it better and more efficient.”
In addition to snowplow drivers, downtown properties owners also have some obligations during snowstorms. Cortez passed an ordinance in 2008 requiring property owners in the central business district and on Broadway to clear sidewalks of snow by noon of the second day following the last measurable snowfall.
For everyone else, Johnson urged caution around snow plows.
“Just be careful,” he said. “Be careful around them.”
The same goes for plow drivers. According to a Cortez Police Department incident report, a plow hit an unattended parked vehicle on East Third Street on the morning of Dec. 26.
