[normtrum]

I'm sure we're all aware about the snow removal process in King County. I personally watched the mayor on King 5 News give an interview where he rated the overall perfomance of the removal process as a "B". He went on to say that "all 27 plows were on the job 24 hours a day", and that "we have plenty of sand and de-icing material to get the job done". Well...he was juuuust a bit mistaken.

One of my best friends works for the city, and was operating one of the so called "27" plows. The county actually only has 12 plows in operation. They have 27 "vehicles" that have plow attachments, but only 12 actually operate with the plows attached. They have 6 trucks that work north King, and 6 that work south. 2 of the south trucks were dedicated to the West Seattle Bridge at all times. Basically if they lose the bridge, they're in big trouble. So this means that only 4 plows were dedicated for the rest of South King.

Next, the mayor claimed they had plenty of sand and de-icing material on hand. Wrong again. They actually ran out of both sand, and the de-icing material (called bio 900 something) on Saturday monrning. They have a huge stockpile of rock salt left over from years past. This is what they were primarily using, but the city does not want us to know that. They had to buy tons of sand from private retailers/wholesellers at a premium price.

So I guess we'd better hope the rock salt gets washed away pretty quickly in the rain. It plays havoc on our cars. Not that I would ever drive my 335 in this mess anyways, but I am driving my Volvo and my wifes Mazda.

I just thought some of the local folk would like to learn about the reality of the situation. It's amazing that the mayor could give such an interview and still keep a straight face.

[Express]

go on tv and report it.

[TopDown]

Originally Posted by normtrum

It's amazing that the mayor could give such an interview and still keep a straight face.

What? A political figure giving a less than truthful interview while keeping a straight face? What's this world coming to?!

[Park2670]

Ive dealt with the salt here for years. Nothing we can do about it.

[vAnt826]

I thought Seattle had a NO SALT policy?

Either way, I say no SAND and no SALT. Just some organic deicers with some plows. Oh and ban chains.

This way, only proper winter setups will make it anywhere (the safest way).

[normtrum]

Originally Posted by vAnt826

I thought Seattle had a NO SALT policy?

I thought the same thing.....and so did everbody else! But they went with salt on Saturday morning.

I guess with heavy rain staying around for the next week+....it should all be pretty much gone shortly.

I'm sick of winter.

[lpphreakx06]

The rain should wash teh salt away lol.

[TWiTCHY]

The chains are more than damaging to the environment. I passed by Crossroads in Bellevue and saw a few piles of chains on the side of the road. Horrible

[scollins]

Originally Posted by TWiTCHY

The chains are more than damaging to the environment. I passed by Crossroads in Bellevue and saw a few piles of chains on the side of the road. Horrible

That's because people are lazy. They put the chains on, then don't bother to tighten them after a short drive as per the instructions. And of course, when the conditions change such that chains are no longer needed, they don't want to take them off, because that would be too much hassle. "I'd just have to put them back on again when I return home." Yeah so?

But mostly it all boils down to laziness.....