Snow removal has been a hot topic in Emporia after 5 inches of snow Wednesday and concerns about the effectiveness of the city’s street clearing efforts.
Emporia City Manager Trey Cocking led off KVOE’s Talk of Emporia on Friday with a discussion about snow removal policies and challenges. Cocking told KVOE listeners the weather conditions — biting cold, blustery winds and lack of sunshine — didn’t help the snow-clearing effort, and he says the city also has limited manpower so it continued its policy of using different contractors to help with the workload. Given those issues, Cocking says the city did as well it could.
Cocking also brought up a point made earlier in the week by Public Works Director Dean Grant, who says city crews can’t put their blades down to the street surface because that approach could damage manholes, water valves, underground utilities and the actual snowplows.
The city uses a combination of salt and hadite to treat major arterials, residential collector streets and areas around schools, Flint Hills Community Health Center and Newman Regional Health. There have been some conversations about possibly moving to brine or beet juice, but Cocking says brine would only lower the effective temperature by two degrees to around 20 degrees. Beet juice could work with temperatures in the mid-teens, but neither work well under certain weather conditions. Cocking also says there are financial and resource tradeoffs to consider.
Cocking says the city is always looking at ways to improve its services, including snow removal, and he says he’s receptive to feedback on potential changes — but he says resources may need to shift if the city changes its treatment materials or puts more emphasis on clearing side streets. Cocking, who was Atchison’s city manager before coming to Emporia, says the city could use Atchison’s approach — but there could be shifts in finances and other resources if residents want that change.
City streets started showing some improvements late Thursday, but a combination of full sunshine and highs around 32 degrees cleared most of the snowfall from major arterials and many residential collector streets by early Friday afternoon.
