Snow removal continues on area roads

Cheyenne County is still digging its way out of over 14 inches of snow left behind by the storm earlier this week.

One of the issues on everybody's mind is when the roads will be cleared.

Sidney's snow removal policy is laid out and worked in stages. Stage one is the Emergency Snow Routes, which are over 200 miles of road that takes priority when it comes to street clean up. To properly remove the snow, the 200-plus miles of emergency snow route is cleaned up at a rate of 10 miles an hour.

Stage two in the snow removal process is ares around Sidney Public Schools, business and commercial areas and non-snow route collector roads. Collector roads are defined as a low-to-moderate-capacity road which serves to move traffic from local streets to arterial roads. Unlike arterials, collector roads are designed to provide access to residential properties. The collector roads in Sidney are 23rd Avenue, Elm Street from 13th to 17th and Newton from 19th to 23rd.

Next is stage three, which are residential roads. Residential roads are plowed under certain criteria which consists of: type of snow, amount of snow, drifting, exiting snow on the ground and future storms.

"Residential roads should be plowed by the end of today," said Sidney Street Superintendent Hank Radtke.

As of Friday morning, the city had eight trucks running 12 hours a day to aid in the clean up of the snow. The department has taken approximately 871 truck loads of snow to the dumping areas.

When facing complaints about the clean up process, Radtke quoted something that was said in a county commissioners planning meeting, "If your street isn't the first to be plowed to bear ground, your not happy."

With that in mind, Radtke and his crew are working diligently to recover from the massive snow accumulation. Radtke asks the community to "please be patient with us."

The snow emergency was lifted just after 2 p.m. on Friday. For more information on the city's snow removal policy's go to http://www.cityofsidney.org.