MOUNT VERNON — Knox County Sheriff Daniel J. Weckesser officially canceled the area’s first major snow alert of the season at 12:10 p.m. on Tuesday.
For some, it was a winter wonderland. For others, it was snowy scariness. It began roughly 12 hours earlier, when the Knox County Sheriff’s Office issued a Level One snow emergency at 12:30 a.m.
At 5:30 a.m., the KCSO raised the alert to Level Two, making all the snow-day seekers’ dreams a reality.
But for those who still had to make the trek to work, it was tough sledding across the county.
The Ohio Department of Transportation continued to rally to the roadways under a Level Three alert, which the sheriff’s office issued at 7:02 a.m.
Things began to calm down around 9:30 a.m. when KCSO reduced the alert to Level One.
KCSO reports snow-related incidents
The KCSO reported 21 non-injury crashes and six injury-related crashes as a result of the overnight storm, which started around 11 p.m. on Monday. The KCSO release is attached below.
ODOT and the City of Mount Vernon’s snow maintenance
Public Information Officer Chas Cosgrave said ODOT pre-treated about 437 lane miles across Knox County on Monday.
“We applied about 7,500 gallons of brine to the roadways to prevent ice from bonding to the pavement,” Cosgrove said.
“Last night, beginning around 11 p.m., we had 11 trucks on the roadway reporting in for overnight snow and ice operations.”
The 11 trucks that worked through the night are still active, primarily plowing back snow to avoid any additional drifting onto the roadways, Cosgrove said.
In Mount Vernon, Director of Public Works Tom Hinkle said five staff members and five trucks from the street department reported to work for snow removal at 2 a.m.
Hills, bridges and main roads were the initial priority for the city workers. However, with the snow emergency cancelled, other areas will see plows soon.
Hinkle said his crew will continue working into the late afternoon as they clear more residential streets.
The current road crew can only work up to 16 hours, but Hinkle said another team will come in around 4 p.m. to wrap up the snow removal.
Mount Vernon crews balance leaf pickup and snow removal
As for pre-treating the roads, Hinkle said his crews didn’t do that because up until recently, they focused on leaf pickup.
“When it comes to the quick change in the weather this time of year, it’s a little bit harder for us to be prepared as we’d like to be because we’re trying to extend the leaf pickup as long as we can,” Hinkle said.
The trucks that pick up leaves also plow snow.
“Before we left last Wednesday for Thanksgiving, we pulled four of our larger trucks’ [leaf equipment] down and got them ready for the [snow] events coming up,” Hinkle said.
“We still have a large truck that is suited with a leaf box, so we could still pick up leaves … But obviously it might be a little while before we go out and find some leaves.”
Hinkle said the city purchased its first pre-treat system this spring, an insert that fits in a dump truck bed and lays brine on roads.
“The truck that we use for the [pre-treat system] has a leaf box in it, so we weren’t able to do any pre-treat for this storm, but we do plan on it in the future,” he said.
“We do have a prescheduled setup that we’ll do when we know a larger storm is coming in. Usually, we do that schedule with 12-hour shifts so that we’ve got coverage for 24 hours.”
Below are some snowy scenes from downtown Mount Vernon around 8:45 a.m., from Jack Slemenda, and some reader-submitted photos from around Knox County.
