Saline Township Officials Question Slow Snow Clearing

In a recent Saline Township Board meeting, one issue that generated much discussion - and some passion - was the slow clearance of the roads after the Super Bowl Sunday snowstorm. Several township roads were not cleared until Wednesday morning.

The Ypsilanti Field Station of the Washtenaw County Road Commission (WCRC) does the snow plowing for Saline Township. They have a five-level priority system in which main highways are first, paved primary roads (like Austin Road) are second, local paved roads are third, subdivisions are fourth and country roads are last. Most of the roads in Saline Township are country roads.

Although these priorities make sense, they do fail to take into account the needs of farmers. Supervisor Jim Marion pointed out that dairy farmers need access so milk trucks can come and go.

Bob Prehn spoke about the situation on Arkona Road where he lives. He said that after the storm, three-foot drifts covered the road.

“A farmer with a front loader made a path through it and that was on Monday morning and we fully expected that we’d be plowed out maybe Monday afternoon or Tuesday. It wasn’t until Wednesday morning that we finally got plowed out and that’s only because I think Jim Marion and Mike Callegari finally contacted people at the county level and said, ‘you know what, you’ve got to get some plows out there.’”

Apparently many township residents had limited use of roads on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Mike Callegari said that parts of Macon Road and Hack Road had been impassable. Marion said he received several calls from concerned residents asking when the roads would be cleared.

On Tuesday, Marion said that he was in Lodi Township and noticed that their roads were clear. A plow driver from the county’s Manchester field office said that Bridgewater Township was also clear, yet Saline Township still had unplowed roads and roads that were plowed only one lane wide.

Several township officials expressed concern for what might have happened in the event of a medical or fire emergency.

“They wouldn’t be able to get emergency vehicles through if there was an emergency – if somebody had a heart attack, so it was kind of a touchy situation,” Prehn said.

Thankfully, the farmer on Arkona Road was not the only one to take matters into his own hands. Other farmers also pitched in.

“The Marion boys had cleared Marion Road so at least we could get in and out of it to get the milk truck in and Ted Marion had a seed truck coming in on Monday,” Marion said.

Although the WCRC was slow to respond in Saline Township after the recent storm it has not always been. Prehn said that in past years, including the difficult 2013-2014 winter, the service has been quicker. So why was this year different?

Roy Townsend, the managing director at the WCRC said that two factors caused the slow response. The first was that this 14-inch snowfall was one of the heaviest for a single storm in many years. He said that in storms of such magnitude they expect it to take 48 hours to clear all roads. But this one took even longer.

The second reason for a slow response was that the WCRC equipment is aging and their work force is somewhat diminished. This, Townsend explained, is because funding for roads comes primarily from gasoline taxes. The gas tax has not changed since 1997.

“As the cost of services continue to increase and the revenue is flat, the service does take longer to get there,” Townsend said. “For example this year the price of salt went up 122 percent, so that’s the challenge we face.”

Michigan voters will have the opportunity on May 5 to vote for an additional revenue stream for roads. If passed, Ballot Proposal 1 would fund roads through an increase in sales tax from six to seven percent.

On April 13, representatives of the WCRC will be present at Township Hall to respond to comments and concerns. Marion strongly encourages citizens to show up and provide their input.

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