Arlington responds to season’s first snowfall

ARLINGTON — Two days after the first snow of the winter fell on its streets, the city of Arlington had resolved most of the issues stemming from the snowfall, according to officials.

Arlington Assistant City Administrator Kristin Banfield reported that city street crews began plowing major arterials when there was only half an inch of accumulated snow on the ground, and had cleared all of the city’s primary streets by the morning of Nov. 23, when they moved on to the secondary streets. According to Banfield, the city had plowed and laid a salt-and-sand mixture on all of its streets by 5 p.m. that same day.

“Our street crews were very aggressive early on,” Banfield said. “The city has 161 lane miles, and all told, we laid down 600 tons of sand and salt on our roadways. We’ve already replenished our sand-and-salt mixture stock and have another 700 tons on hand should we get more snow. Our street crews worked around the clock for close to 48 hours to accomplish this.”

City street crews also assisted the Arlington School District in plowing all of its school parking lots, just in case school went back into session on Nov. 24.

Banfield noted that Arlington Police and Fire responded to approximately 35 weather-related incidents from Nov. 22 through noon on Nov. 24, primarily in the categories of minor accidents, road hazards and “slip-and-falls,” with no major injuries among them.

Banfield added that the Council canceled its workshop on Nov. 22 due to driving conditions.

“We wanted to make sure as many people as possible were off the roads so that street crews could clear the streets and get the sand and salt down well before the morning commute,” Banfield said.

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Contact Arlington Times Reporter Kirk Boxleitner at kboxleitner@marysvilleglobe.com or 360-659-1300 Ext. 5052.

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