Snow Removal FAQ

Q. How long to property owners have to remove snow from their sidewalks?

A. Property owners have 24 hours to remove the snow from their sidewalks after a snowfall.

Q. What area is the City responsible for maintaining?

A. The City is responsible for maintaining all city streets including sidewalk approaches, city alleys, and city parking lots. This includes 36 miles of streets with Main Street and Decker Street. The City cleans approximately 5 miles of sidewalks and all City parking lots. 

Q. When does the City put down salt and/or sand?

A. The City lays down salt or sand whenever the roads appear to be slippery.

Q. What does the City do as far as plowing?

A. The City plows whenever there is an accumulation of 2 or more inches of snowfall. Plowing involves a minimum of four passes for every street, which may cause snow to be pushed back into driveways. After plowing, intersections are cleaned with two loaders and a bobcat, and then the sidewalk approaches and all sidewalks are cleaned.  

Q. Does the City haul snow?

A. Yes, after the snow is plowed the snow has to be hauled to the dumpsite.  Snow is hauled away from the entire downtown area and taken to the Wild West days and VFW sites during early morning hours in order to avoid traffic.

Q. What does the City do in terms of spring clean-up?

A. After the winter, spring clean-up commences. The street sweeper cleans the entire town two times after the snow melts from the previous winter. After that the sweeper is used most Fridays from 4 AM to noon downtown and over the course of the year, at least once over the entire town.  If there is a great deal of dust and storm debris the streets could be cleaned 3 to 4 times.