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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,February 24, 2014 <br /> Page 17 <br /> and meant as an additive to salt treatments. Mr. Schwartz advised that over the <br /> last few weeks, staff had resorted to mixing that material with sand; and there <br /> may come a time in the next few weeks when they would be completely out of <br /> those materials and having to use pure sand for grit. Mr. Schwartz advised that <br /> his intent was to alert the City Council to what is and may become a much more <br /> difficult situation. <br /> Mr. Schwartz noted that,just this past week's event of rain in the afternoon turn- <br /> ing into snow right before rush hour, along with several other events experienced <br /> this season, staff had to make a guess in how best to treat roadways since it only <br /> had one opportunity to do so based on the availability of materials and timing, as <br /> well as staffing levels. Mr. Schwartz noted the need to time the process correctly <br /> to move the most snow before the major temperature drop; advising that crews <br /> went out at 10:00 p.m. after having worked most of the day,with some street crew <br /> members going home at 1:30 p.m. to get some sleep and preserve hours; and then <br /> plowing all night into the early part of the following day. Mr. Schwartz opined <br /> that he found the results fairly decent in accomplishing what they could; even <br /> though there was evidence of some ice build-up on busier roads. Mr. Schwartz <br /> noted that other agencies went out at different times, and were also dealing with <br /> the same shortage of ice control materials. Mr. Schwartz noted that this type of <br /> event provided a clear view of the difference in sun on asphalt versus concrete re- <br /> sponse. Mr. Schwartz noted that, with very little melting due to the cold tempera- <br /> tures, while crews were hauling snow from cul-de-sacs, there was no room left for <br /> any additional snow storage. <br /> In addition, Mr. Schwartz highlighted the concerns he raised in the RCA dated <br /> February 24, 2014, regarding the City's experience with frozen water services <br /> since the end of January and the number reported, including additional customers <br /> over the weekend; and advised that currently there were twenty-two customers <br /> without water in the City; thirty-two services back after City crews assisted in get- <br /> ting those services back on and water flowing. However, Mr. Schwartz advised <br /> that nine of the twenty-two customers without water were unsuccessful in at- <br /> tempting the hot water melting method. <br /> While this is a statewide problem, Mr. Schwartz noted that frost depths were <br /> down to 7' and he expected them to go deeper based on the forecast over the next <br /> few weeks. Mr. Schwartz advised that average high temperatures during this time <br /> of year were typically at 32 degrees,but over the next few nights predictions were <br /> for ten below zero degree nights, which will drive the frost deeper, and he antici- <br /> pated getting more calls. Mr. Schwartz advised that to-date they hadn't had any <br /> public water mains freeze, but the potential was there especially on dead end <br /> lines. Mr. Schwartz noted that some of the freeze-ups in private service lines <br /> were where residents were out of town, but other problems were also being found <br /> with the majority of freeze-ups occurring under streets with longer services or <br /> driveways with grade changes. In Roseville, Mr. Schwartz advised that water <br />