Uh, so we are providing a quick
update to you uh, regarding this
evenings weather event as well as
the streets departments response.
We've got Kent Flake here
from streets Department,
our streets Commissioner.
So, Kent, I'll let you go ahead
and get started and we'll take
a few questions afterwards.
All right. Thank you, nick.
My name's Kent Flake, commissioner streets,
city of Saint Louis. Uh.
Tonight's weather sounds like
it's gonna start as a a light rain
between about 10 and midnight,
somewhere in there transitioning over
to a very wet snow. And continuing.
I go around somewhere around 10:00 AM
tomorrow till till the the the storm loses.
Kind of. It's gas, I guess,
and ends up flurrying off and on until
somewhere between 4:00 and 6:00 PM.
The good thing is. Is it?
Temps look like they're going to be mostly
above freezing during most of this storm.
Be a little question on ground
in their attempts this evening.
Between like 4:00 and 6:00 AM
but looks like ground temps
should stay above freezing.
Throughout the entirety until.
Wednesday night. With, uh,
looks like it's going to drop down
about 27 by 6:00 AM Thursday morning.
So this should just be a very
slushy snow accumulation,
one that you typically see a lot more.
Snow on on grass and yards versus roads.
I really believe once we get out
there and get the roads open.
With the warm air temp and warm
ground temps that it shouldn't
melt most of everything away off
the road surfaces themselves.
Obviously that could all change
if the forecast changes right now.
I've seen forecast anywhere
from 4 to about 8 inches.
Looks like we're going to be probably
around the four to six inch rangement
here in the city of Saint Louis. Uh.
We will have about 3035 trucks on the
road starting at midnight tonight.
2nd shift will come in
at noon tomorrow to do.
Any and all mop up that's needed,
and hopefully by midnight Wednesday night.
What we're able to put this storm to bed?
Hopefully. By about noon tomorrow,
we shouldn't have mostly clear Rd.
surfaces. I really don't see
slickness being an issue.
At this point, like I said,
I think it's going to be more of a slushy.
Kind of storm.
We kind of equate this to
like in March snow,
which we're pretty familiar
with around Saint Louis.
But that being said.
I already mentioned what
times our crews will be out.
For the most part I don't see this
probably using much salt except
on maybe some hills and bridges.
Just to keep a little melting
effect out there with ground
and air temps being so warm.
Especially during the day tomorrow.
I think once we get it pushed out of the way,
like I said,
I think everything should just melt.
It's on its own once it stops snowing.
And there's some pretty significant snow.
Volumes in this as far as I think 1/2
inch an hour is what I'm kind of seeing.
So payments will continue to be.
Overcome by by slushy wet snow.
But I think as soon as we get
that plowed out of the way,
you should have a very good driving service.
Obviously this is going to be
way different than the last storm
we had when we had minus 5 -,
6 -, 7 degree temps.
Where it was 100% chemical storm.
On our side, as far as fighting it.
I really think this one's going
to be a 90 plus percent plow down,
very little chemical used.
In order to get through this one,
it's a little.
So a big difference between the
December storm and this one.
But we're, we're very used
to fighting storms like this.
We've had some pretty significant
wet storms in the past or wet
slushy snow storms in the past.
So we're very familiar with
fighting this one that.
Last one where we had minus 567 degrees.
Out there,
that was not something we were used to.
Some of you guys did interviews
with me before that one,
and usually I'm fairly confident this one.
I'm definitely confident in that last one.
I I definitely had some.
Some reluctancy to be very optimistic
on finding a snowstorm and.
Minus degrees. We're not used to that.
In short, I think that's about all I have.
All right, uh, we'll go ahead
and open it up for questions.
Mark, go right ahead.
We'll turn over to Greg from Spectrum.
Hi. What you mentioned your
staffing 30 to 35 trucks,
are you short any drivers,
is that making you make any changes
as far as the priorities go,
how's your staffing?
Our, our staffing, we're still down.
Knows. Everybody's heard me say this.
Over the last two years,
we're down about 40% on staffing.
In general at the street
division and Street Department.
With this, with this storm,
I mean it's, it's gonna take us a
little bit longer to get control of it.
We'd like to be out there.
We typically have 678 trucks per per station.
We have five stations in the city.
So you're talking 40 drivers typically
just slows our response down.
Other than that, I don't.
I don't see it being an issue
with this storm at all.
The biggest thing for us on this one,
especially your main drags is is to
get out there and get them as as clean
or once it stops snowing to get.
2-3 plow trucks together get all
the snow off the the road surface
itself so then people can drive.
So staffing is is low,
but we've been working with the
Department of Personnel here for the last.
Well, essentially 2 years we've
been working with them really hard
here over the last three to six
months in order to get people in
and and luckily here in two weeks,
I think I've got about 10 guys starting.
So that's good.
Uh, it looks like Mark dropped
his question in the chat.
Um, is the timing a bit of a challenge?
With the heaviest snow continuing
right into the beginning
of the morning commute?
Is it correct that the morning
will be slow and messy?
I I believe that's that's correct.
I mean the good thing is
like I mentioned earlier is I
don't see this being a a real,
real issue of slickness.
We've had this type of snow before.
It's just going to be slushy,
kind of mucky.
Commute to work tomorrow.
Really. And at that point,
morning Rush is when we're going to be
seeing those half inch an hour plus.
Uh, snows, which is which is
always pretty significant. But.
So, yeah, it will.
It will certainly affect morning rush.
The good thing is it,
it does start at 2:00 AM
our crews will be out there.
We always try to get out, you know,
our our incoming roads so.
Anything coming into the city,
that's a major thoroughfare.
We always try to get those at least the
incoming side plowed before rush hour.
Once rush hour hits,
we try to depending on the storm and how.
Many people are actually on
the roadways if if everybody
decides to come to work tomorrow.
We usually kind of sit back between
6:00 and 7:36 and 8:00 to let as
many people get in as possible
so we're not having to dodge.
People going to work and and vice versa,
so they're not trying to dodge us either, so.
So yeah, we we should have a
good 5-6 hours of plowing before
rush 1738 o'clock hits.
We'll be right back out there.
Widening,
opening everything that we can
open and it'll be kind of the
same thing tomorrow afternoon,
anything that we don't have open.
We'll try to get that as open as
we can on the outgoing routes.
Prior to 2:33 o'clock.
So we can provide the best access we can.
Obviously you know we've got 450 miles of Rd.
that we've got to clear.
We always do that based on our
tiered response where we do.
The major roads first,
secondary second,
and then we break down to some Hill,
Hill routes and some smaller
streets after that.
But I really don't see it's going
to be slushy.
As long as people take their
time and have a little confidence
in what they're doing there,
there shouldn't be any problems out there.
Thank you, Ken. Any other questions?
Any other questions?
Going once, going twice. OK.
Well, thank you all for joining
us for this brief update.
If you need a copy of the recording,
please feel free to shoot me
an e-mail and let me know.
Otherwise, I have a great rest of
your day and stay safe out there.
Thanks all. Thank you.