No Snow Alert, Means No Plowing In SF

by Ashley Kringen, Reporter
February 12, 2013 6:35 PM


The weekend blizzard that hit South Dakota dumped a lot of snow on some towns, but in Sioux Falls there wasn't enough for a snow alert.

The city waits until we have two inches of snow or more before the plows are called out, however, the winter storm did leave lots of ice build up throughout the city.

If you did see a plow on the road, city workers were doing a sand operation...moving slush out of the way to clear streets before they laid down sand.

City workers might not have been busy plowing this weekend, but they were busy dealing with the ice build up.

For the first time in seven years, city workers applied a salt and sand mix to every single residential street, not just once, but three times to help break down the ice chunks.

Street Fleet Manager Galynn Huber said the total cost to do this could reach around $300,000.00, but was necessary.

"Couple weeks ago we got freezing rain. That wasn't anything compared to this. This was just pure snow full of water that froze down and it put a layer of ice with some snow on top of it. There isn't anyway you were going to get that stuff off there," said Huber.

With the help of the salt and sand chemical mix, along with the forecasted sunshine, city crews hope most of the ice build up in people's neighborhoods should melt by the end of the week.