Editor's note: The orginal version of this story contained an
error about Cape Elizabeth's normal alotment of road salt. The correct
number is 1,600 tons and has been changed in this version.



By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

Listen closely and you’ll hear the water trickling from rooftops.
Weather forecasters say the state is experiencing a  January thaw,
but lest anyone break out the shorts, they warn there is still a lot of
winter to go.

Public Works crews across the state may be getting a break from the
early morning plow shifts, but the cleanup from a snowy December
continues, as they haul away mounds of snow and make room for the next
storm.

Cape Elizabeth Public Works Director Robert Malley said if a storm
holds off for the next two to four weeks, his crew will be hauling snow
away from esplanades, opening drains and replacing the plows’ cutting
edges.

Malley said the department has 12 pieces of plowing equipment including
trucks with wing plows, front end loaders, a grater and a sidewalk
plow.

Last year, the department didn’t start plowing snow until the end of
January, but this year, Malley said he has already spent a good portion
of his winter accounts, which include allotments for salt and diesel
fuel. Malley said he budgeted $2.10 per gallon of fuel, but the last
shipment was more than $3 per gallon and he anticipates that price will
only increase.  

Malley plans to make an assessment in April, but expects to be “in the hole” this year, as far as his budget is concerned.

“We’ve been into salt, sand and plowing a lot more frequently and we’ve
still got three more months to go,” Malley said. “We’ve had two mild
winters in a row, [but] we don’t change our budget based on that.”

Bob Marine, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in
Gray, said last month was the third snowiest December on record, which
dates back to 1881. Portland received 37.7 inches, compared to 42.3
inches in 1933 and 54.8 inches in 1970, Marine said.

Malley said he remembers that snowy winter in 1970.

“[Previously] the troughs and the jet stream just hasn’t been able to
set up right to bring the colder air from Canada down,” Marine said.
“This year it worked out.”

So far, this winter has left a lot of ice to contend with and that
requires more salt. Malley estimated the department has used
three-quarters of its normal allotment of salt, which is 1,600 tons.

“We haven’t completely replenished our salt yet because there’s a big salt shortage around greater Portland,” Malley said.

A number of local communities’ salt supplies come in by ship from Italy or Chile, he said.

“I don’t think they anticipated we’d be chewing it up so quickly,” Malley said of the supplier.

So what happens when there is a blizzard looming in the forecast? For
one, Malley encourages his crew to go to bed early. If heavy snow is
anticipated to fall after midnight, Malley said he encourages everybody
to go to bed at 7 p.m. because they will have to rise before the sun.
From experience, Malley knows, once the sun comes up, grogginess sets
in and it can be difficult to stay alert behind the wheel.

The Cape Elizabeth Public Works department has two operators and a
foreman on call each week, Malley said. Those people are charged with
pre-salting the main arterial roads, a process that can take about an
hour depending on the storm. Malley said the salt creates a brine
sandwich and like cooking spray on a frying pan it prevents the snow
from sticking to the pavement.

When the snow accumulation reaches two inches, plowing commences. From
the time it stops snowing it can take up to four hours to clean up the
roads and the school parking lots. Once the snow stops, the crews pour
out another layer of salt to loosen the hard packed snow on the main
roads and lay down a mixture of salt and sand on residential roads.

Depending on the storm, an operator’s shift could be 10 hours or it
could be 16 hours. On New Year’s Day, crews pre-salted around 3 p.m.
and began plowing around 5 p.m. Most didn’t finish plowing until 4 a.m.
the next day. Malley said they were able to get breakfast before they
sanded the roads and some continued working right through 3:30 p.m. on
Jan. 2.

It’s no wonder Malley says to do the job, “You’ve got to enjoy plowing snow.”

“I think they’re proud of their efforts and proud of what they do,” Malley said of his crew. “They make me look good.”

Much of their work is done when everyone’s asleep, but during a winter
like this, Malley said everyone seems to appreciate those people behind
the plow a whole lot more.