With the temps expected to hit the mid-sixties this week, it is hard to believe that Hastings was hit with a major snowstorm just a week ago. According to the National Weather Service, Hastings was hit with eight inches of wet, heavy snow overnight between March 4 and 5.
Hastings public works has over 105 miles of roads to clear. Let that number sink in a little. 105 miles… According to Google Maps, if you were to travel from the Hastings Post office to Grand Casino Hinkley, that is 99.2 miles, it would take one hour and 35 minutes. Hastings to St. Cloud State, 94.7 or 101 miles depending on which way you go, and it would take 1:39 or 1:41, respectively. You could be in Iowa at Diamond Jo Casino by driving 107 miles in 1:45. Slippery’s Bar and Grill, made famous by Grumpy Old Men in Wabasha, is only 56 miles in an hour and 10 minutes, so you would have to continue down to Winona State and you still would only drive 88.7 miles in 1:42. Nearly all those trips are mostly done at 60-70 miles per hour.
Travelling 105 miles at plow speeds is a much longer trip time wise, especially when you have to dodge all the cars that are still on the streets after the snow emergency is declared. According to police chief David Wilske, Hastings issued 35 citations for violating the snow emergency parking regulations.
Most plows travel at 15-20 miles per hour max down the residential streets, and they are making multiple passes to clear the road ‘curb to curb’ Of course, there is an army of plow trucks out and about, but that still takes an average of eight to ten hours for the roads to be cleared in town according to the City of Hastings.
What about sidewalks? Who is responsible for those? The owner or renter of the property that the sidewalk is on. Hastings has a simple city code for sidewalk snow removal. Code requires you to clear sidewalks on your property within 48 hours after the end of a snowfall for general public safety. If it has been over 48 hours and the sidewalk is not cleared, that can be reported to public works at 651-480-6185. Once reported, the property owner or renter will be notified to perform the work otherwise public works will clear the sidewalk and the owner will be billed.
What about downtown? There is not a lot of space for excess snow to be stored. Downtown is a different animal for processing snow. Property owners need to shovel the sidewalks before the snow removal process begins. Since they have no place to put the snow they shovel, they shovel it into the street. Then, plows come by and move all of the sidewalk and street snow into the middle of the street to open the parking spaces and allow safe access to businesses. The issue is, now there is a huge pile in the middle of the street that needs to go somewhere to fully open the roadway. This initial phase of the snow removal process happens early on in the cleanup.
Sometime within 24-48 hours, public works crews return downtown to bring the snow to its final destination, the back of the Lake Rebecca parking lot. This is the perfect spot because it is out of the way and allows the snow to melt back into the river over time. The process is interesting to watch, it is a ballet of big orange dump trucks, a giant snowblower and a plow. The snow blower fills the trucks, the trucks carry the snow away and the plow cleans up what is left of the snow as the rest move to the next block. The whole thing for this most recent storm appeared to take 4-5 hours of work.
Social media was full of questions related to snow removal all over town with folks wondering when their streets would be plowed. How does the city decide which roads are plowed first? The priority is emergency vehicles and higher volume routes, and they move to the ancillary streets and cul-de-sacs. Then repeat if needed. Their goal is to conduct operations consistently to increase efficiency. Meaning, they have a route they take each snow fall to help the driver be more efficient. Changing the route means drivers must stop and read the route sheet more often. The more you do the route, the more you can do from memory. Unfortunately, someone needs to be last to be cleared off, and the priority list, while necessary, is not always clear to residents.
The good news is, we have already started the third spring, which means we could be done with the colder temps and should be done with the snowstorms. The bad news is, now the dog droppings are on the docket to clean up next to get the yard in order for summer. The good news is, baseball fans only have to wait until about 60 days for the first Hastings Hawks game at Veterans Park!