By MIKE COURSON
Great Bend Post
As it proved this week, Kansas weather can change in on a dime. Emergency services must always be ready for the various conditions, especially as the winter season approaches. Barton County Works Department Director Chris Schartz said road crews are transitioning from summer work to winter work.
“Probably, at the beginning of next month, we do what we call a ‘snow training,’ where we get the trucks ready,” he said. “We go over the trucks to make sure they are snow ready, that the plows are ready - the blades on the plows, the spreaders are working like they’re supposed to.”
Clearing roads after a snow or ice storm is important work for emergency services and a traveling public, but Schartz reminds the public that county crews consist of just over a dozen employees working nearly 400 miles of road.
“We get around the county as fast as we possibly can on a snowstorm,” he said. “Some parts of the county are worse than other parts of the county, that’s just how it is. All of our trucks are centrally located in Great Bend, so we start in Great Bend and work our way out.”
Schartz said staff does try to shut down spreaders when vehicles are nearby, but reminds the public that can slow crews from reaching other parts of the county. Unless travel is necessary after a snow or ice storm, he recommends staying home to reduce traffic on county roads. The county also uses priority routes to keep primary access points into the county’s many communities open in the event of an emergency.