Winter Weather Puts City of Hazelwood Over Budget

Now that spring has officially arrived, you might expect the winter weather to be long gone. But, if you’ve looked outside or watched a weather forecast, you know that the snow is still falling and may continue throughout the weekend.

I live in a part of Hazelwood where I can see the boundary line between Hazelwood and Florissant from my front door, which gives me an interesting perspective when it comes to the differences in how the two cities operate.

One major difference I, along with other Hazelwood residents, have noticed, is the variance in the speed at which each city clears snow.

Thanks to the heavy snowfall this season, it appears the has had a bit of trouble keeping up. When I looked down the street in front of my home on any given snow day this winter, I could see a stark difference between the Hazelwood and Florissant sides. Oftentimes, the Hazelwood side was still covered in snow while the Florissant side was clear—sometimes for days after the snow fell.  

This issue wasn’t just limited to neighborhoods. Shannon Bielicke, who works at a business located in Hazelwood’s Boeing complex, said that even snow removal there was hit and miss. She said that sometimes the snow would sit for days after a snowstorm.

“They just pile it up,” she said.

I spoke to Paul Williams, Hazelwood’s street maintenance division superintendent, about my concerns, and he said Hazelwood has worked overtime to keep the streets clear this year. Williams said the City has even gone over budget to make it happen. He added that Hazelwood is still waiting on 600 tons of salt to come in from their original order for this year.

“Once that is delivered and paid for, we’ll be a little over budget,” he said. “We’ve spent our allotted money for snow removal this year, and then some.”

He said when he first started in his position, the City usually tried to keep around 1,600 tons of salt in its bins, but since Hazelwood has grown so much, it now keeps around 3,000 tons.

“In a typical winter, that’s plenty,” he said. “We usually use 2,500 to 2,600 tons each year. This year was a little bit more than normal.”

I asked Williams whether there was a particular amount of snow or ice that is required before the City brings out the removal equipment and treats the roads, and he said that decision is made on a case-by-case basis.

“If it’s during the day while we’re at work, I make the decision on when to go out with the trucks,” he said. “If it’s during the night, the police officers make the decision and call me.”

In the past, if forecasters called for a bad snowstorm or ice and the City had plenty of salt on hand, it would go out and pretreat city streets, Williams said.

“But we haven’t done that in years,” he said. “Sometimes it works out great, and other times it rains and washes everything away, and we get burned.”

The City of Hazelwood has seven dump trucks, all equipped with salt spreaders and plows, as well as four pickup trucks. If needed, the City could also use its road grader, a machine usually used to level dirt, to help remove snow, Williams said.

City workers generally focus on streets established as snow routes while snow is falling, then once the snowfall slows down, Williams said crews play catch-up on the side streets in the residential neighborhoods.

“Any street that has a snow route sign on it has been designated a snow route,” Williams said. “With the prediction of 4 inches or more, that’s when that road will have first priority.”

Hazelwood City Council determined which roads are considered snow routes, Williams said.

“They each took a look at their wards and determined which streets have more traffic, as well as the main streets coming out of subdivisions,” he said. “It was done years ago.”

Williams said Hazelwood residents who didn’t want to be bothered with removing their cars during a snowstorm removed many of the snow route signs throughout the years. But if residents want their streets cleaned a little quicker, the best thing to do is to pretend they live on a snow route, even if they do not.

“If the residents would move their cars off the street, it would make our jobs easier,” he said. “It’s hard to get a 10-foot snow plow down a side street when (vehicles) are parked right across from each other.”