By James Massara
After being told by the Crawford County Now staff of reports of unsatisfactory road conditions within the Bucyrus city limits, Bucyrus Service-Safety Director Jeff Wagner said he wanted the public to know the city’s employees are hard at work to ensure motorist safety.
Wagner said there are many factors that come into effect while road crews are at work.
“Staffing is an issue,” Wagner said. “We only have so many people we can put in plow trucks, and some have to have CDL licenses and some don’t. We also have to maintain a crew that can work during the day. You can only have them in the truck for so long so they do prioritize what streets they do first.”
Wagner said there have been times when city employees from other departments have been asked to assist if they meet the qualifications to use the necessary equipment.
He said the order of priority is main streets and truck routes, then the side streets and lastly alleys.
“The side streets may not get done right away,” Wagner said. “But we will get out and get them.”
Weather conditions causing the work done by the crews to be undone quickly also cause concern.
“If it keeps on snowing and blowing and drifting, then we might pull the drivers all off until it stops, and then they’ll come back early in the morning and get out and about before everybody else starts hitting the roads,” Wagner said.
Wagner said his main concern while roads are being cleared, is the safety of his drivers.
“The guys are out there clearing the roads and trying to make it safe for motorists to get where they need to, but we can’t ignore the safety of the guys in the trucks,” Wagner said. “It makes it a challenge to make sure we do stay on top of the roads and hit all of them, but still maintain our employees being safe while they are driving and making sure they aren’t falling asleep or what else might happen when they’re in a plow truck for 8-12 hours. We can’t do that. They need a break also.”
He said there hasn’t been a big enough snowfall recently to warrant a mandated time schedule for the drivers to take mandatory breaks. If the snowfall comes during the regular workday, the drivers work their normal shift. If it comes after hours, they try to limit hours to a maximum of 12.
When asked about concerns regarding safety crews getting to events, such as fire crews reaching two house fires in the same night Jan. 15, Wagner said he has not received any such concerns.
“I have not received any phone calls from the public and, at this time, have heard nothing from the fire department on the matter,” Wagner said.
He said Reid and Mary streets, where the fires occurred, naturally are narrower streets that cause issues even in good weather.
Wagner said maneuvering through city streets sometimes can be difficult without snow, and the snow makes it even worse. He said he knows sometimes things are missed or snow may be pushed in front of a resident’s driveway, and when he receives such a call, crews try to correct the problem as quickly as possible.
Wagner said he hopes residents will be patient with the city crews as they try to clear the streets as quickly and efficiently as possible.