To say that Perryville Public Works has been busy lately, could be a huge understatement. Crews have been hard at work Monday and Tuesday as the city has seen its fair share of ice that has covered many roadways.
Public Works Director Jeff Layton feels like his crews have done a good job considering the circumstances.
“I think we did well,”Layton said. “We spent 95 total hours working on the roads and 14 different people, and eight pieces of equipment out working. Out of those 95 hours, 40 of it was considered overtime. We have been quite busy.
Layton said that crews were out as early as 3 a.m. Jan. 30 prepping the roads with salt, but he said there was some challenges with the icy conditions.
“There is only so much that you can do,” Layton said. “There wasn’t enough to plow, but we had to keep salt on the roads to keep it from sticking. In this weather you just never know what we might get, whether it’s sleet, freezing rain or a mixture. At times I thought our roads looked better than the highways and at times we were behind those guys.”
Perryville received a little less than one-quarter of an inch of ice, according to the National Weather Service. However, Layton and his crews had to stay ahead of the weather. He noted that he almost has to become a weatherman for a few days in the lead-up to the inclement weather.
“As much as I love those guys on television, they are not always accurate,” Layton said. “So we take advantage to all the tools we have available to us. We have a couple people trained that have taken weather spotting classes. We are constantly watching the news and getting up at all hours of the night and checking the roads at early hours.”
While Perryville got mostly ice this week, that was not the same story as the week before. Perryville received about six inches of snow. Layton said he didn’t really have a preference between snow or ice.
“Most of what we got this time was sleet and that will compact, but this wasn’t too bad,” Layton said. “If we get too much snow, it’s hard to keep up too. If we get too much snow, then it’s easier to treat a small amount of ice. It really depends on the quantity and how long it’s coming down. If it’s constantly snowing for a 12 hour period, it’s hard to stay ahead of it because you don’t want the roads to get bad, but whatever you do early gets eliminated and you have to do it over again.”
Perryville Assistant Police Chief Major Bill Jones noted that the police and fire departments didn’t have much in the way of ice related incidents.
“Public Works did a fantastic job of making sure that we could get our fire trucks and police vehicles out on the road,” Jones said. “When you get ice, it’s probably difficult to do anything to say the least. However, the intersections were treated well and they had some grip to them. As far as I’m concerned, ice is terrible and to scrap it up is not the easiest thing in the world.”
