Cass County, Michigan is responding to complaints about snow removal during recent storms. Having so much wet snow so early in the season was a challenge, according to Bob Thompson, the managing director of the county’s road commission.
"When you take that many inches of snow and you drive on it, you don’t just get a layer of ice. You get three, four inches of ice," Thompson told the county commissioners Thursday. "And because you don’t have anything between the ice and the road surface, it sticks like you put glue on it."
He said Cass County doesn’t have the resources to clear local roads to the same standards as state highways or some of its neighbors’ roads in Indiana. The county waits until roads are covered before plowing — and focuses on intersections, hills and curves when spreading salt. Thompson said that’s similar to most Michigan counties but doesn’t compare with places like Elkhart County.
"Elkhart County averages 13,500 tons of salt annually," Thompson said. "We average 2,400."
The situation is similar for labor. Thompson said he doesn’t have enough staff to cover multiple shifts, and there’s a limit to how many hours drivers can safely spend on the roads.
He said snow was falling so fast over the Thanksgiving holiday that crews were struggling to clear the primary roads and weren’t able to get to all the local roads. “We get calls from people in our plats and subdivisions who say, ‘What are you doing? We’ve never seen a truck. It’s been three days.’ Well, we know that,” Thompson said.
Thompson acknowledged the cleanup took too long. Going forward, he said the county is putting tanks on trucks, allowing additives to be applied and making the salt more effective. Beyond that, Thompson said increasing staff would likely require a county road millage, an idea that’s proved unpopular in the past.
