Winter weather keeping city's snow plow crews busy

James Beaty Managing Editor, McAlester News-Capital, Okla.
·2 min read

Feb. 16—Snow plows attached to trucks driven by city of McAlester workers have stayed busy trying to keep the city's main arterial roads cleared.

Two of the snow plows are attached to regular city city trucks.

"We have one bigger one attached to a dump truck," said Assistant McAlester City Manager Toni Ervin.

With the winter weather, they've been working constantly.

"We have them all out right now," Ervin said Tuesday. "One is headed out to the airport to clear the helipad," she said, referring to the landing pad used by helicopters.

Others were working to make sure intersections to main connector roads remained clear early Tuesday before the next round of snow hit, with an additional five-to-eight inches of snow forecast to fall on the area.

While most of the main arterial roads have been treated, there are still some slick spots, Ervin said.

"Our crews are on-call," she said. If they are doing an arterial street and get a call from dispatch, such as a particularly slick hill or another site needing attention, they will turn to it, said Ervin.

When the continuing bout of extreme winter weather first hit last week, the city had 400 tons of salt to treat the roads on hand, Ervin said at the time. How's the salt supply holding out at this point?

"We have probably a little less than 200 tons," Ervin said. "We've ordered more, but it hasn't arrived yet." The city has an additional 200 tons on-order, said Ervin, who is serving as acting city manager while Pete Stasiak is on temporary leave.

The Oklahoma Department of Transportation is responsible for treating Carl Albert Parkway, which is part of U.S. Highway 270. ODOT also treats both North and South Main Street, which is part of U.S. Highway 69, as well as the George Nigh Expressway where Highway 69 wends through McAlester.

Other than that, the city is responsible for the rest of the streets in the municipality.

City street crews have remained busy around-the-clock.

"We've been rotating 24-hour shifts," said Ervin. "They've been rotating for several days.

"So far, we've been able to do our part."

Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.