BILLINGS — With Friday's heavy snow, reaching between six and eight inches, members of the community shoveling sidewalks and City of Billings employees plowing had a hard time keeping up with the heavy precipitation.
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MTN asked two Billings residents shoveling sidewalks about their experience Friday.
Dawson Reed could barely keep up with the snow, shoveling it every few hours.
"Oh, I've probably come out here three times today. I did work this morning, but yeah, three or four times I've been out here moving snow trying to stay on top of it," he said.
Just a few blocks from Reed at Highland Elementary School, crossing guard Debbie Pelensky was pulling double duty.
In between her shifts, she likes to shovel the sidewalks for the kids walking home.
"Well, I'm a school crossing guard over here at Highland, and a lot of kids walk, and they don't have a very good clear path. So, I try to get out here and do as much of it as I can," she said.
On a bigger scale, Billings Traffic and Street Division employees were plowing and hauling snow all day long.
You've probably seen large city trucks hauling snow on days like Friday. MTN followed Billings Traffic and Street Division Supervisor Derick Miller around to see where the plowed snow ends up.
Miller says the process is continuous, and the work started Thursday night.
"So the night crew started to get the trucks all ready for us, getting the plows hooked up. So, we were ready to go as soon as they started... (On) some of the streets we plow the sides, the ones that we center stack, you see the berm going down the center of the street, we have a huge snow blower. It blows it into the back of the trucks," Miller said.
According to Miller, after the trucks gather snow from driving about 12 to 15 yards on residential areas or small streets, the trucks bring it to one of two dumping locations.
One of their locations is just off Airport Road and is currently holding about 2,000 loads. Miller says he has about 22 members on his crew, and they work both days and nights to clear the roads.
At that location, the City of Billings houses a storage unit filled with sand and salt.
Miller says the salt is a lot more expensive than the sand and typically breaks down snow easier. However, on days like Friday when the forecast is cloudy, or it's below zero, the salt isn't very effective.
"It's an incredibly time-extensive process to get all that removed from the street," he said.
The City of Billings finished plowing Zone 6 in the Heights on Thursday, before moving to Zone 1 in northern Billings on Friday. Miller says Zone 3 in southwestern Billings is the next on the to-do list.
Miller says it's hard work with long hours, but his team loves keeping Billings clean and safe.
"These guys turn their life around on a dime. You know, most guys have kids, other responsibilities outside, wife, spouses, helping coach teams, and they put their life on hold to turn around and switch to 12-hour days and just bust their butts trying to get everything done as fast as they can," he said.
With the snow continuously coming down, Miller asks city residents to be patient as the team gets to each zone in the city.
"We're trying to get the roads as clean and safe as possible as we can. So, just leave a little extra room, be patient with us, and we'll be out of your hair shortly," he said.
Saturday's forecast calls for sunshine and no snow, which will allow both residential snow shovelers and the City of Billings Traffic and Street Division to catch up.
