courtesy of Flossmoor Public
Works plow crews. (Photo by
Eric Crump/The Chronicle)
When first predicted, last weekend’s storm looked like it would bring between six and 10 inches of snow.
In Flossmoor, public works crews started fighting the storm at 11 p.m. Saturday. They didn’t stop for two days. After nearly 44 hours of non-stop snow removal, they shut their trucks down at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, which, appropriately enough, was Groundhog Day.
At their meeting Monday night, village board members applauded the public works employees for clearing away hundreds of tons of white stuff in the Chicago area’s fifth largest snowstorm on record. Flossmoor received 17 inches of snow on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1.
“Your guys are fantastic,” Trustee James Mitros told Public Works Director John Brunke.
To fight the storm, Brunke said, 10 fulltime members of his department were split into two shifts. Five workers alternated 12 hour shifts beginning on Saturday night. After 7 a.m. on Monday, all 10 workers remained on the job until 6:30 p.m.
Snow removal equipment included four large dump trucks with plows, five small trucks with plows, two combination loader back-hoes and small snow blowers. Brunke said the large trucks were assigned to the street routes and the small trucks and loader back-hoes were assigned to parking lots and cul-de-sacs.
Until Saturday, Flossmoor and the rest of the Chicago area had experienced a relatively mild winter in terms of snow, Brunke said. There was no way of knowing that the storm would be so severe, he said, adding that workers followed normal routines in combating last weekend’s snow.
Brunke said he was pleased with the performance of his public works staff.
“Considering the amount of snowfall in a short period of time, I think our Public Works crews did a good job this weekend,” he said.