Towns Deal with Heavy Ice
by Alicia Morissette
& Amy Kolb Noyes

The icy roads that plagued Lamoille County Monday morning, January 3,
resulted in a great effort by local road crews to sand the back roads
and salt the paved roads to ensure the safety of the community. In some
instances, pavement had to be both salted and sanded, due to refreezing.
In at least one town, a roll-over resulted in an entire load of sand in
one spot!
Despite the chains on the truck tires, one of the Eden trucks "slid off
the road" said Eden Road Comissioner Ricky Morin. Morin stated that
after dealing with this problem, they "had everything under control."
Amazingly, the Eden crew started working at three o'clock Sunday
afternoon and did not stop until 7:30 Monday night. Morin said they just
continued to "go over again with mix [sand and salt]" until the roads
were safe. Morin also estimated that "half to three-quarters of an inch
[of ice] built up," and he observed that "there were trees down from the
build-up of ice."
Eden was not the only town with equipment trouble. The Stowe road crew
also reported trouble keeping their trucks on the road.
Morrisville experienced a different headache, which is sure to result in
some extra clean up efforts. According to Francis "Tag" Taginski, the
new town administrator, the town and village road crews were out all night.
"We turned quite a few of our village roads into gravel roads," he
commented. He explained the village streets were first salted, the salt
began to penetrate the ice but then the roads refroze, necessitating the
sand. He said the situation was "like using a Zamboni to redo an ice rink."
A mix-up at the sand pile resulted in some large gravel being used on
the village sidewalk. Taginski explained the guys simply took the gravel
from the wrong side of the sand pile, where the gravel was screened too
large.
The town crew was out from 2:30 a.m. until 7:30 Monday morning. Taginski
commented, "The town crew did a fantastic job getting the job done and
making it safe."
In Waterville, Selectman Don Lynch commented on how their contracted
workers dealt with the ice. He stated the roads were all open and
sanded, and the Waterville School experienced only a two to
two-and-one-half hour delay. When asked how Monday compared to previous
storms, Lynch stated, "It's a typical icy day [but] it's the worst it
has been this year." As for his views of how the ice has been handled by
the contracted workers, Lynch commented, "They have done as good a job
as anyone could hope for considering Waterville is all hills."
Blaine Delisle, Johnson road foreman, handled the ice in a similar way.
His crew used a lot of sand and used chains on their trucks. As for his
take on the icy roads, he said dryly, "We seem to be getting quite a bit
of it early this year," but he is treating it just like every other
year, and he will continue to do "regular winter maintenance."
In Cambridge, the road crew started at four o'clock in the morning and
did not stop until 11 o'clock at night. Brad Blaisdell, Cambridge road
commissioner, noted they "were putting in many hours." Blaisdell also
commented he and his crew "watched as the storm crossed New York state"
and were in their trucks waiting for the storm. Still, when the storm
finally hit, Blaisdell said, "we couldn't keep up with it."
Blaisdell estimated one inch of ice covered the roads in Cambridge and
stated they had to use chains on their truck tires. Two of the trucks
were designated for salting the paved roads and three trucks were
designated for spreading sand on the dirt roads. As for Blaisdell's
impression of the severity of the icy roads, he said he could not really
say, because he had not been in his position long enough. However, he
said some of his crew thought this was the worst ice they had seen.
Hyde Park took the storm in stride. Road Commissioner Ken Harvey
commented it was, "Just another storm, so to speak." He said they put
the chains on the trucks, and all the trucks stayed on the road. The
only accident in town was a passenger car that slid off the road.
Elmore Road Commissioner Bob West also reported a relatively smooth
storm. However, he said they went through a lot of sand! He said he saw
a lot of pickup trucks loading up at the town sand pile, which he said
is okay as long as they are Elmore residents. He added, "as long as they
come in and use it with common sense that's fine."
"We made out fine, no problems at all," he commented. West said Elmore
typically uses chains on the rear tires for Eagle Ledge, but for this
storm they had both the front and rear tires chained. West said they
don't often run chains on the front, but it did the trick. No one ended
up in the ditch!