Workers were busy during storms

Published 4:50 pm Monday, January 5, 2009

While they provided an unusually white Christmas for this area, Kenmore City Manager Fred Stouder said the winter storms that hit just in time for the holidays were so unusual no local city really was in a position to deal with the resulting mess.

As of Jan. 5, Kenmore officials still were trying to determine how much the storms had cost the city in terms of overtime for workers and so on.

In Bothell, according to Public Information Officer Kirsten Clemens, the city spent an estimated $150,000 in cleaning up from the storms.

Clemens said the costs included staff overtime, de-icer and other supplies.

All in all, Bothell employed six snow plows and used 10,000 gallons of liquid de-icer, 300 tons of sand and 5,000 pounds of road salt. City public-works crews were on the streets 24 hours a day for 18 days straight.

According to Clemens, no area of the city was worse off than any other, though the city closed roads in a few spots, including the intersection of 104th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 185th Street; 240th Avenue Southeast between 39th and 45th avenues southeast; and 228th Street from Fourth Avenue West to the western city limit.

In the area of the Kenmore Shooting Range, the latter street seemed to present the worst problem. The stretch of road was closed again for several hours the morning of Jan. 5 following the snow showers that fell the previous night.

Besides the accident involving a Bothell firefighter (see page 1), city officials did not report any serious injuries resulting from the unusual weather. They also reported no extensive power outages.

During the snow showers that arrived Jan. 4-5, Bothell officials were again urging residents to call, if needed, the city’s emergency update line at (425) 487-5132.

As it does for nearly all of its services, Kenmore City Hall contracts out for plowing and snow removal. In this case, the city partners with neighboring Lake Forest Park.

Stouder said the two communities shared seven storm-fighting vehicles, including four snow plows. As in Bothell, Lake Forest road crews were on the streets 24 hours a day for, Stouder believed, approximately 12 days straight.

According to a city press release, the round-the-clock efforts began Dec. 13. The same release stated the city had de-icer available to it only as supplied by King County.

Shortly after Christmas, Stouder said officials changed their tactics, putting crews on the streets in overlapping shifts attempting to exploit periods of higher temperatures and melting snow.

According to Stouder, Kenmore’s problem areas were notably the city’s many hillsides. He said he knows some residents watched from those hillsides as plows made their way down main streets, but bypassed steep side streets. Stouder said just as mail and garbage trucks couldn’t make it up some hills, neither could the snow plows.

Stouder said the mix of snow and rain simply added to the overall problems. He said the streets first got a covering of snow, which melted, then turned into ice. More snow was added on top of that mix. Stouder said snow plows were able to vanquish the snow, but simply didn’t have much of an effect on the underlying ice.

As of Jan. 5, Stouder said Kenmore and Lake Forest leaders already had met at least once to review how the cities responded to the storm. Stouder said he expected to release a detailed report to Kenmore City Council and the public sometime soon.

The city did not report any serious injuries resulting from the weather. Stouder said he knew of a few sporadic and apparently short power outages, including one that struck City Hall.