UPDATE: City Crews Still Grappling with Trees, Limbs

UPDATE, 1:52 p.m., 1/20/12

I just got the following update from Public Works Director Gary Cooper:

The Crews are doing pretty good considering they have been working 14 on/10 off since Sunday night.
 
Currently our biggest challenge are the trees and limbs falling. We are only responding to trees blocking the road, cutting them back enough to get the road open. Hopefully it continues to rain and melt the ice from the trees lightening them up. All three of our snow plows are carrying a chainsaw cutting back trees as they go, but that sure slows down the plowing process.
We will get started on the trees hanging over the sidewalks and shoulders next week.
 
Falling branches have caused many low hanging wires. If we can prop them up we do, if they are hanging down causing a safety concern Crews are forced to cut them. We cannot shut down a street due to low hanging TV or cable wires.
 
Looks like we will have a big clean up project for the next couple of weeks.

Indeed.

Check back for more updates.

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The , and University Place has already lost a big part of its snow-and-ice-fighting fleet.

The city's skeleton crew has been hitting University Place streets since Today, however, it was dealt a snowy blow when one of its three snow plows broke down.

Public Works Director Gary Cooper said the plow is getting repairs, but it might not be ready for the larger downpour of snow that's predicted for Wednesday.

"When you only have three plows, that's 30 percent of your fleet," he told Patch today.

Still, Cooper said the 9-person crew is bracing for the snow, which forecastors say could dump between five to 10 inches in University Place.

The snow will push the city's fleet of two de-icer machines and, now, two snow plows to the limit, along the crew that has to drive them over the next 24 hours, perhaps even longer.

Cooper said given his limited resources, public works will focus on the city's busier arterial streets, including Bridgeport Way, Gradview Drive and 40th Street West.

"It's just the same as we always have done," he said.

So goes the lives of University Place public works employees during snowy weather.