Staff & Equipment

Shifts

The Town operates two shifts during the snowfall months, typically November through April: a day shift and an evening shift. The evening shift provides extended coverage into the late evening hours, considering the many traveling public consists of drivers that are unfamiliar to the environmental conditions that exist in mountain communities. The evening shift overlaps a portion of the day shift in order for the operators to coordinate tasks that will need to be performed from the end of the day shift. In addition to coordination of tasks, the evening shift plays a key role in maintaining safe access for priority routes that include public transit routes, and assisting with  all snow management operations as weather permits.

Image of snow plows and equipment in parking lot

Area of Responsibility

The Public Works staff are responsible for snow and ice removal from approximately 35 lane-miles of roadway utilizing medium duty plow / sand trucks, front-end loaders with various snow attachments, light duty pick-up trucks with plows, a skid loader and a motor grader. Snow removal operations require an extreme level of attention and awareness from the equipment operators in order to safely operate these large and cumbersome pieces of equipment on the road systems. The traveling public should keep in mind that this equipment requires a much greater distance to stop, has many blind spots and requires ample room to maneuver.

In addition, Public Works clears snow from the parking spaces along US Highway 40 (Zerex Street). Town crews make every effort to keep these parking areas clear as time allows. CDOT plows and maintains the traveled lanes of the highway along these parking areas which are located in the CDOT ROW. 

Right of Ways

Parking in the public ROW's adds an additional challenge to our snow management operations. Therefore, parking on Town streets is prohibited and vehicles may be ticketed and/or towed at the owner’s expense. Parking restrictions are specific to each street as posted on signs along the streets. When cars and equipment are parked in or on a portion of the public ROW, it creates difficult and unsafe conditions for the plow operators to safely navigate the snow and ice removal equipment along these streets. As a result, the streets do not get the proper attention needed to make them safe and passable.