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Plowing Picks Up in 2013

After having a slow past couple of years due to a lack of snow, this year’s been a return to form for Door County’s snow removal crews.

“Last year was the lowest [in my time here] from the standpoint of how much salt we used and snow and ice control. It was the least expensive of the winter seasons,” said Door County Highway Department Head John Kolodziej. “This year we’re running ahead of our five year average.”

Photo by Len Villano

From November 2012 through January of this year, the Highway Department has used 4,229 tons of salt on Door County’s roadways, which at about $60 a ton puts the total cost for salt this year at roughly $253,740. The five-year average amount of salt used per season is around 3,800 tons.

“For something like [the early February storms] we’ll put guys out immediately on state roads and town roads, then typically we’re called out at one or two in the morning to do a full clean-up,” said Kolodziej. “It all depends on when the storm arrives.”

“The roads have been very good so far this season. There have been a few accidents, but many are just cars that slid into the ditch,” said Door County Sherriff Terry Vogel, whose department often coordinates with the highway department’s plows. “With them keeping the roadways more salted and sanded it really helps.”

The highway department’s snow removal operations are funded on a per operation basis, meaning they charge each time they’re called into service on city, state, county, town or village roads and are paid out of those municipalities’ budgets.

“I don’t think anybody reduced their budget overall,” said Kolodziej. “The county kept the budget in line with what’s historically been done.”

The Town of Jacksonport uses a private plowing company to do their snow removal, and Town Board Chairman Al Birnschein said he expects that even with this year’s additional snow the town will likely be able to roll over some of the money it had budgeted for pushing snow around.

“Last year we budgeted $38,000 to $39,000 for snow removal and we didn’t use nearly that,” said Birnschein, “We’re probably going to be about the same this year.”

Jacksonport’s plowing is done by Eric Peil and his crew at Peil Construction, LLC. Peil, who also plows for the Village of Ephraim and a number of private and commercial properties, said he’s barely had time to work in his office over the course of the past couple of weeks.

“We usually start at two or three in the morning… and it takes right about five hours to plow a municipality,” said Peil. “In the morning our main goal is to get every road at least open by seven so the buses have safe roads to travel, and then we go back and get everything done.”

But while he’s been keeping busy, Peil said it’s actually been a pretty typical year for him.

“It’s busier than the last two, but overall it’s been pretty normal,” he said.

What’s been helpful for removal crews is that, although the snow has been plentiful, it hasn’t been very heavy, making plowing a less time-consuming chore than it could be otherwise.

“You’re not moving snow around for a couple days like you were a couple years back,” said Birnschein.

“There haven’t been huge snow events,” said Kolodziej, “just more than normal.”

Of course, there’s still more winter to come, and it’s possible that the county could still be in for a big snow before the spring blossoms start popping up. And then there’s next year to look forward to as well.

“We’ll be alright this year as far as I can see as long as we don’t get some awful snow,” said Birnschein, “but next November and December is always the one that catches you.“