Plowing through the problem

The newly seated Moorcroft Town Council discussed problems caused by snow on town streets at the January 2 special meeting, focusing on the issues faced by the municipal plow, police department and citizens during the winter months.

One such issue involves the direction the plow pushes the snow as it passes on the streets. Last year, the council unanimously approved moving the snow to the sides of municipal streets as opposed to the center because of safety issues.

Moorcroft police officer Bill Bryant made this observation: "When you plow to the center and have cars parked on the side of the street, I can hardly get my Durango through there. I can't imagine trying to get a fire truck or an ambulance through."

However, this practice does create the problem of the windrows caused by the plow crossing citizens' driveway egress/ingress.

Public Works Director Cory Allison described the issue facing the maintenance crew this winter: "As a council, you guys decided that if somebody called who were elderly or handicapped, the town would come help clear the snow windrows from the entrance to their drive. We had a few problems today, some people saw us plowing other entrances and called to have theirs plowed; so we need a decision on how you want me to do that."

The aforementioned council decision is only to assist the elderly and infirm; not, according to Mayor Dick Claar, "the people who are able-bodied. [They] need to secure their own method to clear their windrow out". A few residents of Texas Trails subdivision are complaining about not receiving help with the windrows across their drives, though they are capable of clearing the area themselves.

Utilizing the same criteria used for residents on assistance for water was suggested for the application to receive snow windrow assistance; this assistance is, of course, only to the end of the town easement as the municipal crew and equipment cannot be used on peoples' private property.

Then there are those people who choose not to move their vehicles from the street for the plow when snow is on the ground, increasing the issue of safe passage. According to Bryant, one citizen, when asked to move his vehicles for the plow, stated that he would not do so.

A possible solution is creating a snow route along Wind River, Tongue River and Carbon in the subdivision to facilitate safe snow removal. With this option, the police may use discretionary enforcement in these circumstances and, under ordinance, they can simply tow the vehicles that are in the way.

The mayor agreed, "We [can] tell everybody to get their vehicles off the street." His fellow councilmen concurred that "It's a mess out there" and they want to see the area streets so designated.

The council plans to confirm the method by which they can declare the streets a snow route, decide the dates between which the roads are to remain clear and examine any possible modification to the ordinance in question to pursue this option.