By Lindsay Eckert
WWKI
January 2014 marks the second snowiest January in Indiana history – recording 26.9 inches when the annual average for Indiana is 25.3 inches. As 7-8 inches fell Feb. 4 into Feb. 5, plows from INDOT and City of Kokomo geared up to battle against the blustery conditions of winter.
INDOT deployed 830 plow trucks statewide as counties issued travel alerts throughout the state – Miami, Tipton, Hamilton counties were under a watch for nearly two days while Howard County issued an advisory.
City of Kokomo deployed all 30 of its plow trucks and supplemented its plowing staff with four-wheel drive pickups geared with plow blades to focus on intersections and clean up.
Greg Goodnight, City of Kokomo Mayor, told Kevin and Lindsay in the Morning Thursday the persistent winter weather has taken its toll on city supplies, but the city isn’t close to running out.
“We’ve had a lot [of salt] stocked because the last three or four years have been pretty good with snow,” Goodnight said. “Last winter, we used 2,350 tons of salt for the entire winter [December through March]; this winter – just starting with January, not including December – we’ve used 4,300 tons of salt already.”
Goodnight added the City of Kokomo has a supply order for salt; so, as amounts of salt decrease the city pays the same price as it did in the beginning of the season when they need to purchase more salt.
However, one number Goodnight said has taken its toll on the city: Overtime hours.
“Make sure you’re sitting down for this one; we’ve spent more than $100,000 in overtime for city employees [mostly plow-truck drivers],” Goodnight told us. “It’s been a strain because over the last few years our street department has worked on other projects during the winter: like clean-up projects and they haven’t been able to do any of that.”
While City of Kokomo has stayed busy on the roads, Goodnight said it’s been a two-fold task to keep roads safe: Potholes continue to cause problems for both drivers and street crews.
“Today we’re packing the [potholes] with ice,” Goodnight joked before explaining the process of filling potholes in the city. “When you patch a pothole, it’s temporary; so, as soon as we get the next snow if it’s not filled perfectly the snow plows will clip that patch and take it right back out. It makes it challenging since we can’t fill those potholes permanently until the spring”
Goodnight added people who see a pothole are encouraged to tweet the pothole’s location to @cityofkokomo or call City of Kokomo at 456-7444. If you’ve hit a pothole you can report damage to the street department.
