Snow cleanup in the city of Whitewater after last week’s blizzard went better than normal, City Manager Kevin Brunner said.
“I think it really went well,” Brunner said. “I usually get a number of complaints [and] I didn’t get a single complaint. I actually got a lot of compliments from our citizens about the way we handled it.”
Brunner said there was a minimal amount of problems on the roads during the storm. However, a driver was apprehended after a brief chase for a hit-and-run accident on West Main Street.
The city sent out seven large plows, three small plows and one sidewalk sweeper to deal with the 15 inches of snow that fell in Whitewater, Brunner said.
Brunner said 2,100 tons of snow was plowed out of the downtown area and 45 hours of extra trucking was used.
As far as whether the city is on pace to use the salt it purchased for the season, Brunner said it’s hard to tell because the city budget runs from January to December, so part of the money for salt is on last year’s budget and the rest is on this year’s budget.
The city’s 2011 snow budget is $137,000, which covers labor, salt and sand, equipment, truck maintenance and de-icers.
“We typically won’t really know that until fall,” Brunner said. “We’re concerned about it, obviously, but I think we’ll be OK unless we have one or two major storms.”
Brunner said January was relatively calm snow-wise.