Mayor explains snow response plans

While staring down the third snow storm in the last three weeks, township officials outlined weather-response plans in place going into storms: salt early, plow in four inches of accumulation, prioritize projects.

At this point, the township has had a combined 35 inches of practice dealing with snow accumulated from this week, the Dec. 26 blizzard and the three inches that fell over the weekend.

Toms River schools will be delayed 90 minutes Thursday as local crews work to remove ice and eight inches of snow - a cleanup that the mayor said is nearly complete.

At 3:30 p.m. Wednesday snow plowing on all township roads was substantially complete, officials said, and township crews faced another round of salt-spreading after combatting the storm since late yesterday.

The mayor confirmed that plowing began at 2 a.m. Wednesday thanks to snowfall that picked up overnight. The public works department had 200 plows in use this morning and crews have cleared the main and emergency roads, officials said.

“We are closely monitoring yet another winter snow storm," said Mayor Thomas Kelaher, who outlined the snow removal process in a message to residents Tuesday morning. “I want to assure all of our residents that we are prepared for this storm and we will begin our snow removal operations as soon as we possibly can.”

Toms River is broken down into 32 different sections, each with its own plowing foreman, directing crews until the job is done, he said. Plowing begins once at least four inches of snow have fallen.

The mayor confirmed that plowing began at 2 a.m. today thanks to snowfall that picked up overnight.

The first roads tackled after plows are launched: emergency service roads – streets where fire houses and first aid squads sit, or Oak Avenue near the police station, for example.

The next priority are main municipal roads, followed by the lesser trafficked residential “secondary and tertiary roads,” Kelaher said, with dead ends and cul-de-sacs as the last priority.

Yet Toms River has more than 850 dead end and cul-de-sacs streets, the mayor said.

“We urge patience,” he said. “Amid all of this, we tend to emergencies. With a 911 call in the blizzard, a plow leads the way with the emergency responder, a police car, and fire truck to provide manpower to shovel out or whatnot.”

He and members of the township council recognized residents have criticisms over the township's snow response, but ultimately praised the township for its plowing efforts during winter so far.

"I hear people say, 'I wish I lived on a councilman's street, maybe it would be plowed.' But I live on a cul-de-sac. The plows came at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday," said Councilman Maurice Hill, about the Sunday, Dec. 26 blizzard.

A lack of communication, and a way to better handle an influx of calls, was a hot topic of a meeting between public works, police, township administration and council members last week discussing how to improve snow response, the mayor said.

For this storm, the township posted updates on the township's public access television channel, as well as the website and Facebook page, explaining the snow plowing process.

In addition, the mayor continues to urge township residents to not park street side during snow storms. The process of plowing is made much more inefficient when plow trucks must weave around vehicles parked on the street, Kelaher said. “If everyone kept their cars of the street, it would be a big help,” he said.

Snow began to fall at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, before turning to sleet and rain for much of the evening. Into 10 p.m. and onward, Toms River was quickly again accumulating snow and is now under approximately 8 inches of snow, reported the mayor.

Working through the night against the third snowstorm since Dec. 26, Ocean County Road Department crews had all 620 miles of county roads open for travelers by early Wednesday morning.

Anticipating a frigid night, county Road Supervisor Stephen Childers said the county roads will be salted Wednesday to prevent them from icing up as the mercury drops.

“Everything’s open, were just cleaning up, pushing snow back’’ along the sides of the roads, Childers said.

About 150 workers were called in to clear the roads at 8 p.m. Tuesday, when reports of rain freezing on the roads in Plumsted Township were received, Childers said. “The snow started in the west and south and moved north.’’

Private contractors were called in to aid the effort at 2 a.m. They won the right to plow by submitting the lowest bid for the work in different regions of the county, he explained.

“The rain made it easier for us to move the snow,’’ Childers said.

Freeholder Director Joseph H. Vicari said county offices would be open Wednesday, while schools across the county were closed.

Estimates of the cost of clearing the roads and county parking lots and sidewalks were still be calculated Wednesday. The cost of dealing with the Dec. 26 blizzard was put at $866,000.