“If we fill that up, we are going to use the train station lot and north end ball field area,” said Dan Arthur, the city’s public works director. “We had four crews — two from gas and water assisting — doing this all day on the side streets off of High/Main and we cleared (the) High/Main parking stalls at night, when it’s safer, by Resident Services. This has been a huge, multi-department effort by our city and I am thoroughly proud of them all.”
He said snow-clearing efforts by the Downtown Hamilton Special Improvement District are taking care of sidewalks along High/Main Street, Arthur said.
Arthur estimated that snowplow efforts throughout the entire city amounted to roughly 50 million cubic feet of snow plowed, with the portion hauled to the High Street lot accounting for an estimated 300,000 to 500,000 cubic feet.
The snow hauling effort is aimed at making it easier for people to drive, walk and shop, as well as operate their businesses, city officials said.
“We never stopped the trucks from 56 straight hours,” Arthur said. “We just put a new guy in it every 12 hours to freshen them up.”
Hamilton City Manager Craig Bucheit, during city council’s Jan. 28 meeting, thanked numerous department leaders for their efforts, plus city crews spending several days to ensure streets are passable and safe.
“This was an extraordinary event in terms of the amount of snow that fell, the extended period over which it fell, and the extremely low temperatures that we are still experiencing, and according to the latest forecast, those temperatures will not abate for at least another week,” Bucheit said. “It was extremely important that we move as much snow as possible to get at least one passable lane on every road in the city, then work to improve those roads and address the sidewalks downtown with our special improvement district, as well as the parking situation,” Bucheit said.
Crews worked around the clock and did “an extraordinary job,” he said.
“Dan, to you and all our crews and teams: well done,” Bucheit told Arthur. “You knocked it out of the park.
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