While Monday's snow storm made the scenery bordering the city look picturesque, it forced the city's road crews to struggle.
"It's been a persistent storm. It's hard to keep ahead of it. And that's the problem we're having today. The storm just didn't let up. This is fair, but passable," Daniel E. Kelly, city superintendent of streets, said of the snow-covered Mahantongo Street at 1:30 p.m. while plowing cakes of ice off of it in the 30-degree cold Monday afternoon.
He said Centre Street wasn't much better, but the city's 14-man road crew, himself included, were doing their best to battle the storm, which dropped more than 5 inches on the city.
The city council reduced the city's street department by one full-time position two years ago, but the troubled economy hasn't prevented the remaining 14 full-time workers from putting in overtime and dumping tons of road salt and anti-skid material to clear the roads, Kelly said.
On Monday, each of the crew members worked 4 hours and 45 minutes worth of overtime, Kelly said.
Since there are 14 on the crew, that's 66 hours and 30 minutes worth of total overtime.
"We don't have a day shift or a night shift. The regular shift is from 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. If you get called in early or work after the shift, that's overtime. On Monday, we worked from 4 a.m. until 5:15 p.m. We won't go back in tonight unless we're called in," Kelly said at 5:50 p.m.
By 4:30 p.m., Centre Street was cleared of snow.
"This might be the worst snow we've had to deal with this season. And we're probably going to end up dumping something like 200 tons of road salt and anti-skid material to get through this. I'd say we used roughly 100 tons of salt and 100 tons of anti-skid material," Kelly said.
"Winter Storm Maximus," as it was dubbed by The Weather Channel, started dropping snow in Schuylkill County early Monday and didn't stop until the late afternoon.
"Once it stops, it won't take us much to clean up. I'd say it would take us about three hours or four hours," Kelly said at 1:45 p.m.
City police asked Kelly and his crew to start plowing the roads in the middle of the night.
"They're out 24/7, so they keep an eye on things. They called me around 4, when we had about an inch of snow on the ground. We start on the main streets, then start working our way onto the side streets," Kelly said.
The city's road crew is responsible for plowing the 48 miles of streets in the city. Kelly described the manpower and tools the city has at its disposal.
"That hurt a little. With the less guys you have, it gets harder to do," Kelly said.
The city streets department has 14 trucks. All have plows, but only 13 have salt and anti-skid material spreaders. One of those was out of service on Monday, having its steering column repaired, Kelly said.
The streets department also has a skid loader, which members of the street crew used off and on to clear areas around City Hall, Kelly said.
"If we had an extra guy, you'd have someone who would just take it around more," Kelly said.
In the fall, the city had "about 225 tons of road salt" and "80 to 100" tons of anti-skid material in storage at the city garage just off Railroad Street, Kelly said.
On Monday, some city trucks dropped road salt while others dropped a mixture of road salt and anti-skid material, Kelly said.
"Anti-skid material is really fine stone. It gives you traction," Kelly said.
The road crews depend on it more than road salt once the temperatures dip into the single digits, Kelly said.
"In that kind of cold, the road salt doesn't work as fast," he said.
"We use a lot more road salt than people think, and it's not cheap," City Administrator Thomas A. Palamar said Monday.
In 2013, the city bought 966.63 tons of road salt from American Rock LLC at a cost of $53,105, Palamar said.
So far in 2014, the city bought 849 tons of road salt from Oceanport LLC at a cost of $48,379, Palamar said.
Meanwhile, the city buys anti-skid material from Pottsville Materials LLC, based just off East Darkwater Road.
Palamar and workers in the city clerk's office weren't able to calculate how much anti-skid material the city bought this year or in 2013.
"They have to do it invoice by invoice, and there's a stack," Mary Quirk, Palamar's administrative assistant, said.
"I didn't see a bill yet this year to see what it costs, but it's not as expensive as road salt," Kelly said.
Sometimes the city acquires anti-skid material for free, Kelly said.
"Some people will drop off their stoker ashes here," he said.