Moberly uses nearly half of salt-sand mix supply to battle first winter storm
Mitchell Kaminski
MOBERLY, Mo. (KMIZ)
Moberly city crews spent the weekend battling the season’s first major snowfall after roughly 6 inches fell across the area, with more continuing into Monday.
However, preparation for the winter weather began long before the first flakes fell.
“We’re working several months in advance, actually, into the summer,” city spokesman Scott McGarvey told ABC 17 News. “ We’re getting all of our supplies together. The juice that goes into mixing with the sand and that kind of thing. So, our guys are ready several months in advance, looking forward to this point in our season.”
The city treats streets with a 50–50 mixture of salt and sand coated with a GeoMelt product that improves salt performance in low temperatures. Moberly began the season with 600 tons of material and used nearly 250 tons on Saturday alone.
“It was pretty, pretty busy over the weekend, obviously, with a lot of moisture coming down. So we had our utilities guys come in and help out our public works department. McGarvey said. “So a lot of teamwork happening in the city right now to make sure we get the streets covered up.”
McGarvey said crews monitor the weather radar closely and keep workers on call as storms approach so plowing can begin as soon as police report slick conditions. Twelve trucks — a mix of dump trucks and pickups — were deployed over the weekend with a full staff on duty.
As conditions worsened on Monday, Moberly City Hall closed early to allow staff to get home safely. The City Council meeting was also postponed to Wednesday night, due to the inclement weather. Waste Management also pulled trucks off the streets on Monday morning, with several areas of the city still unattended.
McGarvey said Moberly is prepared for whatever winter brings, even if the weather doesn’t always follow the plan.
“It just depends on when Mother Nature throws at us. We’re ready and when it starts coming down it’s it’s kind of like you’ve got a good plan until it hits the ground and then you find out if it works or not,” McGarvey said.
He also urged residents to obey posted snow-route signs to help plows clear streets efficiently.
“If you’re seeing the signs on the street that say this is a snow route, we want you to move your vehicle off the roadway so that our trucks can get through,” McGarvey said. “The bigger dump trucks can move this stuff pretty easily. The smaller trucks, because what happened over the weekend has frozen solid, are having a little bit more difficult time moving that stuff off the ground. So if you’re living on a snow route, we want to see your vehicle off the street into a driveway or off-site off site.”