The National Weather Service in Des Moines said it’s already one of the snowiest Decembers on record for Webster County, and City of Fort Dodge and Webster County leaders are looking ahead at it potentially being harsher than normal — not just in snowfall, but on equipment, staffing, and budgets.

“We have a lot of winter left,” said Webster County Engineer Jamie Johll, who noted that the December average snowfall in Webster County is 7.9 inches and the county yearly average is 39 inches of snow. “This could end up being one of the worst we’ve had in awhile.”

Webster County Road Department’s staff of 38 maintenance employees have been working around the clock since the first snowfall in late November.

“Webster County has the fifth highest daily traffic of all counties in Iowa,” said Johll. “This creates some added pressure and increased level of service expectations for my department. My guys are the best in the business and handle the pressure well.”

On days when inclement weather hits the area, the county road crew workers are starting their day at 4 a.m. and running as late as 6 p.m., even running on weekends and holidays, depending on the weather.

The City of Fort Dodge Public Works department has 28 operators, which includes 10 plow drivers and four loader operators per shift, as well as two mechanics.

“Our staff is doing a phenomenal job,” said Brett Daniel, City of Fort Dodge Public Works director. “A majority of them haven’t had a day off since Thanksgiving and continue to do their job at a high level. The fatigue they are dealing with from doing some eight-hour shifts and some 12-hour shifts, along with some day and some night shifts, can be overwhelming, but our staff has continued to work hard and at a high level to perform the snow removal operations our community deserves.”

Every falling snowflake and gusty wind adds up in manpower, supplies and in the budget for both city and county leaders.

The county’s total budget for maintenance and construction of all county roads and bridges is $16 million with about 300 line items, many of which vary based on winter’s severity. According to Johll, he estimates using 150,000 gallons of diesel, 10,000 tons of sand, and 1,500 tons of salt annually.

“It’s hard to plan for as the quantity and frequency of snowfall can vary widely from year to year,” said Johll. “This is one reason why the Code of Iowa allows county road departments to maintain a reserve fund that carries over between fiscal year budgets.”

According to Johll, the Thanksgiving weekend storm cost the county between $80,000 and $100,000.

The City Public Works budget is $495,915. According to Daniel, just the cost of manpower for the first storm of the season was more than $26,810, and the cost of product was around $28,000.

“That’s a total cost of about $54,000 which is a conservative number,” said Daniel. “This is higher than your average storm due to the severity. An average storm is probably 60 percent of this, roughly $28,000 to $35,000.”

Both county and city leadership are prepared financially for the surplus snow, but the physical space for it is already proving to be problematic.

“This much snow early can create problems outside of just the normal cleaning and removal,” said Daniel. “Storage becomes an issue, right-of-ways fill up with snow, corners get hard to see over the piles, and many other things that can complicate and add to our operations. Storms of this magnitude with this frequency press the limits of our equipment and staff, so Mother Nature notching it down a step or two would certainly make all of us feel a little better about the next three to four months. Unfortunately we can only control what we can control, and the weather is not that.”

County and city plows are continuing to clean up and maintain roadways from last weekend’s storm, but residents pushing snow from their entrances into the right-of-way is creating problems for road workers.

“I’d like to ask the public for help,” said Johll. “When snow is pushed from an entrance to the shoulder across the street, the piles get hard and create a hazard for plows. This also creates a hazard for motorists and is illegal. When plowing out their entrances, citizens should either push their snow to the sides or further onto their own property.”

County and city road workers won’t get a break from the snow any time soon. The National Weather Service has forecast strong winds and blizzard conditions for later today as well as added snowfall on Thursday and this upcoming weekend.

By the numbers

27 inches of snow

38 County maintenance employees

28 City Public Works employees

$54,000-plus cost to city for snow removal last week

$80,000-plus cost to county for snow removal last week