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Steamboat snow removal crews still catching up from storm, carnival

City was trucking in snow for Winter Carnival as storm started

Tom Ross
A Chevrolet Suburban parked in the lot at Bob's Conoco at 10th Street is entombed for the winter while it waits for delivery and installation of a new rear end.
Tom Ross

— Steamboat Springs Public Works Director Philo Shelton said Wednesday that snow removal crews were out around the clock in Steamboat Springs this week trying to recover from a double whammy. There was the snowstorm that dumped more than 2 feet in town in four days compounded by the traditional chore of trucking snow into downtown for the Winter Carnival street events Saturday and Sunday.

“Along about Tuesday, we were asking ourselves, ‘Is this ever going to stop?’” Shelton said.

Weather observer Art Judson reported Tuesday morning that 25.2 inches of snow had fallen in the preceding four days, bringing the snow depth at his weather station between downtown and the mountain to 50.5 inches.



It was easy for motorists on Ninth Street just south of Lincoln Avenue to deduce Wednesday that snow removal crews have work remaining to do — cars parked diagonally on the east side of the street, combined with parallel-parked cars on the west side, had reduced the street to less than two lanes of traffic.

“People need to be very careful there,” Shelton agreed.



Ironically, on Friday night, the city’s crews were busily trucking snow from their storage pile on 13th Street back into downtown and spreading it on Lincoln to ensure sufficient snow for the Winter Carnival street events, which involve cowboys and cowgirls on horseback pulling skiers down the broad street in a variety of events.

As soon as Saturday’s events were over, Shelton said, crews plowed the snow back to the curb so traffic patterns could resume through the later afternoon and evening. Before dawn, the snow was spread back over the streets for Sunday’s carnival events, and it was later plowed to the curb again awaiting removal. By then, the snowstorm was in full swing.

The most intense period of snowfall blew through downtown at about 5:45 p.m. Monday.

Shelton said he tentatively hopes to meet with representatives of Mainstreet Steamboat Springs to revisit the strategy for the Winter Carnival street events.

“It’s a lot of work,” he said.

— To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or e-mail tross@steamboattoday.com


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