The wet heaviness
of the season’s first significant snowfall was still hampering efforts in
Duneland this morning to clear the roads.
Meanwhile, in many
of the unincorporated county’s subdivisions, on-street parking was doing the
same thing.
And Chesterton
Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg spoke for his counterparts in the
Porter Public Works Department and Porter Count Highway Department when he
urged residents to be patient. “It’s not just the amount of snow we had, 15
inches,” he said. “The problem we’re having is that it’s really heavy. It’s
taking three times longer than normal to plow.”
The usual one-hour
job in a subdivision, say, has become a three-hour job, Schnadenberg said.
Typically it takes him 30 minutes tops to plow the Duneland Chamber of
Commerce’s parking lot, which the town owns. This time, Schnadenberg said,
it took him 90 minutes.
“It hasn’t been
uncommon this weekend for subdivisions not to see a plow for four or five
hours,” he added. “Holy smokes, it’s just taking a long time.”
Plows in Chesterton
have been running non-stop since 11 p.m. Saturday, with drivers working in
12-hour shifts, six guys on and six off. “That’s the only way to do it,”
Schnadenberg said, “instead of having everyone on at the same time.”
Schnadenberg did
express his frustration with folks who still think it’s a good idea--despite
the fact it’s a Town Code violation subject to a $100 fine--to throw snow in
a roadway that’s been cleared. “It’s the same old thing that I have yet to
figure out,” he said. “We spend the time plowing the roads and then people
are putting it back in the road. I’m tired of complaining about it.”
Porter Public Works
Director Brenda Brueckheimer concurred with Schnadenberg’s assessment. “It’s
taking at least three times longer,” she said. “The snow is very heavy.”
But the density of
the stuff has also been putting some significant mechanical stress on her
fleet. “We’re dealing with some breakdowns now,” Brueckheimer noted.
Unincorporated
Subdivisions
For his part,
Porter County Highway Superintendent David James is rather wishing that
folks in the subdivisions would give his drivers a break, and a little more
credit. Between 7 and 7:55 a.m. today, he said, he received 59 calls--59
complaints--from residents wondering why their subdivisions weren’t free
and clear.
“There were a lot
of Super Bowl parties yesterday, with a lot of on-street parking,” James
said. “We made a few passes in the subdivisions but it’s tough when you’ve
got to go around the cars. Then everybody left but we were still working on
the main streets and haven’t gotten back to the subdivisions.”
There is a two-inch
snow ordinance on the county books, James said, but it’s tough to enforce.
“If we do that, I’ve got to have a truck hang out while the cars are
removed. And then the main roads aren’t getting attention.”
“We’ve got 32 truck
and 812 miles to plow,” James added. “Please be patient.”
Porter County
Commissioner Laura Blaney, D-South, posted this plea on her Facebook page
today: “Folks, please be patient with our highway department. All of our
equipment and guys are out on the roads. They’ve been working since 3am
today after starting at 4am yesterday. They are busting their tails! They
can’t do the subdivisions until the main roads are cleared. There’s no point
in getting people out of their neighborhoods only to have them get stuck on
the main thoroughfares. I know you’re frustrated. Please know we are doing
everything we can.”
James’ plows were
moving slowly, at least early today, for one other reason. “There’s the
weight of the snow but then the temperature dropped and the road surface
froze,” he said. “It’s slick under everything and the guys have to slow
down.”
And while James was
thankful that the high winds forecast for Sunday night never materialized,
he was less enthused by this morning’s finger of lake-effect adding insult
to injury.
Outages
At 12 p.m. Sunday
the Northern Indiana Public Service Company was reporting outages affecting
7,900 customers, the effect of heavy snow and gusty winds.
At 8 a.m. today,
that number had been reduced to 527, with none reported in Chesterton; 89 in
Portage; one in Valparaiso; and one in LaPorte. The rest were in Lake
County.
At 6:38 p.m.
Sunday, the Chesterton Fire Department responded to a tree limb on a line in
the 100 block of Westchester Court. That limb had popped the breakers and
was burning, Fire Chief John Jarka said.
“The fire looked
impressive, it was burning the limb in three different spots, but once it
went out we just waited for NIPSCO,” Jarka said.
Neither the CFD nor
the Porter Fire Department reported responding to any weather-related
medical emergencies this weekend.
Accidents
Sgt. Larry LaFlower
of the Porter County Sheriff’s Police put the number of weather-related
slide-offs and accidents at more than 100.