Politics & Government
Stow Plows Its Way Through Winter
City dealing with snow, ice, rain and flooding as the weather warms up.
Although Stow has been dealt some harsh weather in recent months, Mother Nature has at least dished out most winter storms during the work week.
That may be no fun for commuters, but one result is that the city has required fewer overtime hours of its service-department employees this year than it did last winter.
Between September through February, the city paid $81,673.02 in service department overtime costs to its 17 employees, said Mike Miller, Stow assistant service director.
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Last season, during the same time, Stow paid $86,192 to 22 employees, he said.
“The other difference this year is there were not as many thaws in between snowfalls,” Service Director Dano Koehler said.
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With 201 cul-de-sacs and 341 miles of road in Stow’s six districts, the city’s nine service trucks typically take eight hours to clear the streets of snow and ice after a storm, Miller said.
“It’s like plowing a street from here to Chicago,” Koehler said.
Having used, to this point in the season, 10,000 tons of rock salt, Stow has a supply of 5,000 tons on hand. The city has spent about $464,800 so far this year on rock salt, purchased at $46.48 per ton from Cargill.
The city also processes the salt to make its own, which is mixed with beet juice to further its effectiveness. Stow still has 4,600 gallons of beet juice it purchased in 2010 at about 12 cents per gallon, Koehler said.
“If you put brine down, it will last two days or so, but if you have it with beet juice it will last three or more days. We haven’t needed it as much this winter as last year,” Miller said.
Fewer periods of thaw between snowstorms this season caused ice to build up over time and, as warmer weather returned, led to problems for residents and property owners.
Street Superintendent Charles Riedel said an overnight rain Sunday contributed to and property damage throughout Stow, although he wasn't aware of any personal injuries.
“I started getting pages about 5:30 a.m. Monday. We had to stop all our normal work and move into that,” Riedel said.
Senior Engineer Brad Kosko said city-wide water issues earlier in the week resulted from “perfect conditions” for flooding.
“It was just a condition of the ground being saturated, on top of snow melt, and another rain on top of that,” said Kosko.
The service, street and engineering departments worked to stem overflow from retention ponds, downspout lines, drain lines, storm water pipes and storm sewers.
Sanitary sewers backed up throughout Stow, but those issues are handled by the Summit County Department of Environmental Services rather than the city, Kosko said.
Riedel said although the city cannot address water damage from sanitary sewers, residents at times need reassurance when facing such situations.
“Most people want to see or talk to somebody, especially homeowners who are responsible for their property damage. We don’t recommend any companies, but we give them recommendations about the next step,” he said.