Waking up to several inches of snow on Presidents Day can be a nice surprise for school kids who have the day off, but it's no holiday for snow plow drivers.

Day or night, the minute a winter storm starts to blanket an area, snow removal crews with the city, county and state warm up their plows and try to keep the streets and roads as clear and safe as possible.

Depending on the severity of the snowfall, crews can stay on top of the plowing or play catch-up for days, said Daniel Czarnecki, Casper's streets and fleet maintenance divisions manager.

"The system is set up based on the roads that have the most traffic, not necessarily the most vocal complainers," he said.

Czarnecki said the city does not plow every street, but focuses on streets called arterials and collectors that serve hospitals, schools and allow emergency vehicle access.

Not everyone is satisfied with Casper's snow-removal efforts.

"In the 14 years I've lived in Casper, this is the worst I've ever seen it," Ridgecrest Drive resident John Wickman said after a recent snowfall. "During this last snowstorm, the roads were so bad that I just basically stayed home. Where were the plows?"

Czarnecki said the city has 12 snow plows out at a time, with four plows on the west, four in the downtown/central area and four on the east side.

During heavy snowfall, crews work around the clock to clear the major roads and focus on heavy-traffic streets before turning their attention to school bus routes and secondary streets.

Because Casper is so spread out, city crews have to plow 428 "lane miles" of streets, including the five-lane CY Avenue that stretches all the way to Robertson Road. Czarnecki said Casper has enough snow plows for its size. and crews can plow all the major streets in a 12-hour period.

"We recommend that people become familiar with the streets that get plowed and try to drive on them," he said. "Usually within a few days, most of the snow on the streets melts, so we don't have to plow the residential streets. We let Mother Nature help us thaw the roads out."

Czarnecki said the city stopped using sand on the roads because it clogged up the drainage system and switched to a de-icer called Ice Slicer. Snow plows scrape the roads right to the pavement and sprinkle the Ice Slicer behind them to help melt any leftover ice.

He said the Ice Slicer's all-natural salt mixture doesn't work well at temperatures below 10 degrees.

Windrows

When it snows fewer than 3 inches, city crews will plow snow to the sides of the streets, Czarnecki said, but when it snows 3 inches or more, crews plow snow to the middle of the street into windrows.

Plow drivers try to cut access openings in the windrows, but many people still drive through the snow piles. Czarnecki said windrows can be dangerous when they get tall and can be filled with ice or other street debris. When people drive through the windrows, they knock the snow back into the street and cause extra work for the plow drivers.

Once the snow removal crews get caught up on keeping the streets clear, they can come by and scoop up the windrows with a blower.

Two years ago, the ice broke a resident's metal driveway ramp loose, and it ended up in one of the windrows, Czarnecki said. The snow quickly covered up the metal ramp, making it undetectable.

When a blower came by to collect the windrow, the metal plate shot through the blower and pierced the blower's gas tank. Luckily, no one was hurt.

He said people can help keep roads clear by not shoveling their sidewalks and driveways into the street where the snow can block the road.

"We hope residents will take it upon themselves to put the snow on their yards and around trees," he said. "The moisture is good for the grass."

Outside Casper

In addition to city snow removal efforts, crews with the county and state work around the clock in the worst winter conditions to keep all the major roads clear.

Many of the streets in Casper are county roads or state highways. The Wyoming Department of Transportation has two nine-person shifts that plow more than 640 lane miles of roads around Casper, including Interstate 25, part of Wyoming Boulevard and U.S. Highway 20/26 to the airport.

"Always be cautious around snow plows, and remember that WYDOT closes roads when they are too dangerous to travel on," said Jim Nations, WYDOT public involvement specialist, in a release. "Running a road closure gate only adds to the difficulties of trying to reopen the road."

Mike Haigler, superintendent for the Natrona County Road, Bridge and Parks Department, said the county has more than 800 miles of roads with varying levels of paving.

"We can pretty much take care of everybody within the first day," Haigler said, noting that the county does about 300 lane miles of roads and doesn't plow many of the dirt and gravel roads.

The county will plow from about 4 a.m. until dark, depending on the storm, he said. After dark, few people travel on county roads during a storm.

Safety first

Drivers can get frustrated in the winter months when the streets turn to ice and the cold persists, but it's important to keep patient and drive safely, Czarnecki said.

"It's amazing what our drivers can do with these plows," he said. Snow plow drivers steer the enormous trucks around town in terrible weather at all hours and are often among the first to arrive at the scene of an accident, clearing the way for emergency vehicles, he said.

Sometimes the plows run into parked cars, he said, but fortunately the worst damage this season was a broken mirror on a parked car. Often it's the other motorists who are the most dangerous.

"People try to zip around these trucks," he said. The plows may move slowly, but they have blind spots like any other vehicle, he said.

"When you see the snow plows going slowly, please understand that they're trying to make sure the roads are safe," Czarnecki said.

Reporter John Morgan can be reached at (307) 266-0614 or john.morgan@casperstartribune.net.

For more details about the city's snow removal and maps of the snow routes, visit www.casperwy.gov/content/departments/streets/snow.asp

If you think your street needs to be plowed or have questions for the city's snow removal crew, call (307) 235-8283. Outside Casper, in Natrona County, call (307) 235-9311.