November 2019 - Snow Removal Plan

By James Mapus, Transportation Director, Perrysburg Schools

With the arrival of our first winter weather of the season, we would like to share a little information about our protocol for snow removal throughout the school district.

The school district employs a snow crew each year who stand by to help clear snow from parking lots and sidewalks throughout the school district each time there is a weather event. During the 2017-18 school year, there were 38 days that the snow crew was activated; during the 2018-19 school year, there were 41 days that the snow crew was activated. They apply brine as well as rock salt and run snow plows. Each time bad weather is anticipated, this crew ensures the night before that the equipment is in working order, prepped, loaded and that vehicles are fueled.

Each building begins the season with an initial supply of 50-pound bags of salt – 54 total for all buildings. Additional salt on-hand at the maintenance department includes:
559 bags of Inferno Ice Melt
245 bags of Nitro Ice Melt

There are two brine applicators that pretreat the day before a snow event if it is anticipated to be less than two inches and if temperatures are anticipated to be 20 degrees or above. It takes 263 gallons of brine for each event, which treats all walks.

As one example of how our plan and crew works on weather event days, our snow removal plan by building for a 1 to 3-inch snow with no delay includes the following: Ft. Meigs (due to YMCA Program) and the Bus Garage needs to be plowed by 6:30 a.m., Hull Prairie by 6:45 a.m., the Junior High by 7:00 a.m. and the High School by 7:30 a.m. The elementary schools are all plowed by 8:00 a.m. and playgrounds are plowed by 11 a.m. This is based on current staffing levels if work is started by 3 a.m. Total plow truck hours in this scenario are 29.75 and total sidewalk plow hours are 11.50.

We take safety very seriously, and our snow crew works very hard each weather event to make our facilities as safe as possible for our students, families, employees and members of the public. We appreciate the dedication of our snow crew—many members have served for years to be on-call to help keep our facilities safe. They come out to help make sure we are ready when there may be an event and they are up and out in the worst of weather to help ensure all students are able to achieve their greatest potential. We are very grateful for their diligence and their embodiment of the Jacket Way.