What’s that stuff you are putting on our streets? a number of environmental factors. Those include the air and ground temperature, whether the temperature is rising or falling, the direction and speed of the wind, the type of precipitation and intensity of the storm, and the time of day. In addition to removing snow, we want to melt ice and prevent ice formation when possible. Q. What can I do to minimize the effects of these materials Plowing Second Street on my car? Continued from page 3 A. We live in a harsh Q. What is Scoria? When do environment. The simple Q. What’s that liquid stuff you you use it? answer is go to the car wash are spraying on the streets? Is A. Scoria is a sort of natural a little more frequently in it corrosive? brick formed from shale winter. A. The material we use is or sandstone that has been called Caliber M1000. It is exposed to intense heat. The Q. I notice that some materials a blend of 30% magnesium red color is produced by iron leave a residue. Do they chloride solution and 70% oxides in the rock. We use stain? corn by-products. It is scoria strictly for traction A. This is what is left after the Ice Slicer dissolves. It has speciÞcally designed for control. It does not melt ice. It a residual effect and will still anti-icing, direct application is high in particulates, which work when it starts to snow is detrimental to air quality. It de-icing, frost prevention, must be swept up after storms. again. It can be tracked on and pre-wetting of solids. It is prone to get into catch your tires or shoes but it will When applied as an anti- basins, drainage systems, not stain clothing or carpets. icer, it makes plowing easier and can be seen on sidewalks because it has the effect of and planter strips year-round. If you’d like further information, check out our helping prevent the snow We only use scoria in limited web site: from bonding to the road quantities at intersections and www.ci.gillette.wy.us and turning to ice. Caliber other areas where we need to write, or give us a call: M1000 is 78% less corrosive provide an additional measure of traction, such as very steep City of Gillette than salt as veriÞed by tests hills. Public Works Department developed by the National Association of Corrosion Q. How do you decide what 611 N. Exchange Ave. Gillette, WY 82716 Engineers. Typically, liquid material to use and when? PH: (307) 686-5278 is applied between 20-40 A. Our snow & ice control FAX: (307) 686-6564 gallons per lane mile. operations are dependent on
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City of Gillette
Winter Safety Tips Important Reminders from your Public Works Department SnowÞghters The success of our snow removal program depends on your assistance. Here are a few tips: 1. When it starts to snow, park your vehicles off the street if possible. 2. Within 24 hours of a snowfall, remove snow from your sidewalk. 3. Put snow from your driveway and sidewalk on your property, not in the street. 4. Remove your car from Snow Emergency Routes when snow is expected to reach 4 inches in depth. 5. If you shovel before we plow, there is a good chance your driveway or sidewalk may get plowed in or covered up. In most cases it is unavoidable. It is more of a problem in the parts of town where we have curbside sidewalks. 6. Be patient. We have 165 miles of streets and we take care of major streets and emergency routes Þrst.
Remember:
We’ll be out there 24 hours a day. We will provide the safest streets possible.
We provide Service with P.R.I.D.E. Productivity Responsibility Integrity Dedication Enthusiasm
There’s No Business Like Snow Business Winter tips and information from the SnowÞghters of your Public Works Department www.ci.gillette.wy.us
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What’s that stuff you are putting on our streets?
Snow Business...Our Business Winter is almost here. As residents, we do many things to prepare our homes for the cold weather including winterizing our sprinkler systems and our recreational vehicles, getting our snow blowers ready to go and Þguring out where we put our snow shovels and the bag of ice-melt. We also make sure our windshield scrapers are in our cars and trucks so we’re ready for the Þrst freeze. Well, your Public Works SnowÞghters are getting ready as well. We’re getting our plow trucks and sanders ready to go. We’re stocking up on our de-icing materials, and we’re going through refresher training. As we approach winter, we have one goal - safe streets. That’s what motivates us. Please read the following information. The better you understand what we do and how we do it, the closer your expectations will meet the reality of the services we provide. If you have any
Parks Division
Streets Division
questions about our policies & procedures, contact information is provided. Your input and suggestions are valued. Have a safe winter! Gillette has an annual average snowfall of 64 inches. Strong winds and sub-zero temperatures accompany much of our snowfall. These factors plus the time of day, rate of snowfall, and moisture content affect how we approach our
operations. During a storm, Public Works uses resources from the Streets, Parks and Solid Waste Divisions to staff snow removal crews and we’ll work round-the-clock to provide the safest streets possible for you. During heavy and longer duration storms we also use volunteers from other divisions within the city to augment our crews. When our crews are called out, we have a plan. Our streets are identiÞed by priority. • Priority 1 streets include major streets that serve the most trafÞc which are called arterials, and streets that facilitate the movement of emergency vehicles around the hospital, Þre stations, and law enforcement facilities. Streets identiÞed as snow emergency routes are posted with the sign as shown here.
Loading de-icing material.
• Priority 2 streets are higher volume collector streets including those around schools and critical residential streets where we have steep hills and where we have frequent drifting and icing conditions. • Priority 3 streets are all other non-critical residential streets. We also provide services to the elderly and handicapped Continued on page 3
Snow emergency route sign
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persons on a request basis. You need to complete an assistance request form to be eligible for these services. Our policy is to plow snow to the sides of the streets. We believe this method will provide the highest level of service and safest streets. Besides plowing streets, we provide additional services through our Parks Division. Our highest priorities are snow and ice removal from designated sidewalks and parking lots around the Police Department, City Hall, and near schools. We also remove snow on bike paths and other city owned parking lots and sidewalks. Sorry, we do not do residential sidewalks. That is your responsibility under City Ordinance 18-17. It is important that you clear your sidewalks when the storm is over and after we come through with the plows. It is very important in areas where kids use the sidewalks to go to and from school.
Wyoming winters are harsh and unpredictable. Your SnowÞghters are working to provide the safest streets possible. The antiicing, de-icing, and traction materials we use provide the best combination of cost De-icing works! effective snow & ice the questions you may have control while being sensitive about the products we use. to environmental effects. We are continually looking at Q. What is Ice Slicer? new products and studies to A. “Ice Slicer” is the primary help guide our decisions to product we use for de-icing. provide the most effective It is a product that is mined in snow & ice control services Redmond, Utah. It is reddish for the citizens of Gillette. in color and made up of We use a variety of products naturally occurring complex to help melt snow and ice on chlorides, magnesium, our streets during and after calcium, sodium, and snowstorms. The following potassium chloride. It is Q&A should address some of 70% less corrosive than salt and will melt ice faster and at lower temperatures than salt. Unlike scoria, it dissolves and does not need to be swept up after a storm. It also provides similar traction capability as scoria when Þrst applied prior to dissolving because it is granular in nature. It also has fewer particulates than scoria, meaning less air quality issues. Applying de-icer.
Solid Waste Division
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Continued on page 4