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Road and Bridge reports extensive winter response, maintenance and staffing steps
Summary
Road and Bridge Superintendent Darren Fischel told commissioners the department sent 10 employees to supervision training, trained one employee for a CDL, completed fall pothole patching and prepared snow plows, and that crews worked long hours clearing roads after an unusual storm that began as rain then froze and later produced heavy snow.
Darren Fischel delivered the bi-monthly Road and Bridge report on Nov.–Dec. operations and the department’s response to the recent winter storm.
Fischel said the department sent 10 employees to an LTAP "fundamentals of supervision" class as part of succession planning and trained one employee to obtain a commercial driver’s license. He reported completion of fall "dura patch" pothole work, servicing of snow plows and a range of routine maintenance including culvert replacements, ditch cleaning and signpost replacement. "Our county wide striping project is complete," he said, and described work replacing structures on Armstrong Road and building a low-water crossing to restore property access.
Fischel told the board the recent storm was "a little unusual" because it began as rain before freezing, preventing pretreatment. Crews had to suspend operations at times because of blowing snow and to rescue employees; they resumed clearing asphalt roads starting about 4:00 a.m. Monday. "We're working 12 hours a day right now. Probably yesterday, we had we put in 15 hours," he said, describing extended shifts during the weekend response.
Fischel also provided aggregate haul and surface-maintenance figures for 2024 and said plans are in place for 2025 projects and for beginning 2026 budget preparations. He reported the 2024 budget did not exceed historical averages and that the department did not exceed its budget.
Commissioners praised staff for their work and had no further questions. The report contained several location-specific maintenance examples (State Street/B Street, Salemsburg Road, Stemel, Armstrong Road) and a series of operational figures Fischel reported; some numeric items (e.g., aggregate tonnage and miles reworked) were presented in the meeting as department figures and were not broken down by funding source in the discussion.
The presentation was informational; no board action was requested or taken.
