BELLVILLE — Even before the winter storm hit Friday, local governments throughout Richland County were preparing for the onslaught.
The National Weather Service in Cleveland had predicted that sleet would coat the roads in a layer of ice around midday Friday and a snowfall of 3 to 5 inches would follow.
“I spoke with our street department earlier,” said Bellville mayor Teri Brenkus early Friday afternoon. “All of our street department is on call.”
Brenkus referenced a text from village administrator Larry Weirich, which said that all three trucks of the village’s salt trucks were loaded and ready to roll.
Bellville’s Street Department owns a total of four trucks, all of which can be used to plow snow. The street department will be better equipped this year than in the past, thanks to a new single-axle dump truck purchased last summer.
According to Bellville Street Department superintendent Ryan Wine, the other single-axle truck, which the village is keeping as a spare, is more than 10 years old. The new truck should be a more effective tool for treating icy roads, since it can spray brine directly onto the salt as it’s dispelled from the truck bed.
“It’s the first vehicle that we’ve ever had that can do brine,” Wine said.
Pre-soaking the salt helps because salt must be wet to melt ice and snow.
“When you just put (salt) on dry, it has to lay there, it has to get wet and then it starts working,” Weirich said.
With this truck, the salt will “already be activated” when it hits the road.
“It should cut down on salt usage too, because you shouldn’t have to go over it as many times,” Weirich added.
The new truck will also increase efficiency by facilitating road clean-up during the transition from fall to winter.
“With the other truck, we couldn’t pick up leaves and spread salt at the same time. Now we can keep the leaf box on a little longer,” Wine explained. “It makes it a less frantic time of year.”
When rain, sleet and snow come in close succession, timing the treatment of roads can be difficult.
“You don’t want to put the salt down before it rains, because the rain will just dissolve the salt,” Wine said. “You have to wait until it starts to get a little bit slick before you start salting.”
Wine says it’s also not advisable to salt right before a big snowfall, since the salt will be plowed away by trucks. Street department officials began treating the roads late Friday morning as temperatures dropped closer to freezing and went out again Friday evening and at 3 a.m. Saturday morning.
Nevertheless, drivers should always take caution and give salt trucks and snow plows plenty of room.
“We encourage citizens if they’re going to be out to have full a tank of gas, make sure their cell phone is charged, slow down and increase the distance between them and the car in front of them, especially in icy conditions,” said Bellville police chief Ron Willey.
Brenkus also encouraged residents to park in their driveways before and during winter storms.
“I think the biggest obstacle that night was the parked cars in the road,” said Brenkus, who rode with one of the street department employees for four hours Saturday morning. “If you have a driveway and you know that there’s going to be a storm, park in the driveway and save these guys the headache of trying to miss your vehicle.”
