An Exhausting Winter for the Phoenixville Streets Department

With 41 miles of roads to care for between six people, the streets department in Phoenixville faced challenges lately, thanks to multi-day storms and the difficult task of a heavy snow blast that buried the borough.

“They’re worn out,” Borough Manager Jean Krack said of the crew in a telephone interview Wednesday.

During the 2011 budget process, the streets department cut its budget and cut one person from its ranks. Since the beginning of the year, the department tackled seven winter weather events, including the ice storm that walloped the borough earlier this week.

“These guys have done—given what they’ve been faced with—as good a job as anyone can expect,” Krack said.

With narrow streets and the task of finding places to pile the snow, the borough faces different challenges than the surrounding townships. Equipment is another issue. Krack noted that the department can’t simply load up a dump truck to cart the snow somewhere else.

“These trucks can only do so much work,” Krack said.

During the last large snow storm, Krack said roads were made passable, even if just one lane, during the storm. In the ice storm, which really revved up after 11 p.m. Tuesday, most residents were off the road and the crews worked throughout the storm to keep roads from getting slick.

“You can’t thank them enough,” Krack said of the crew.

The storms left the borough with a low salt balance, and Krack said that, without knowing the exact numbers, the budget likely busted.

“And we’ve still got two more months of winter,” he said.

The borough might face more winter weather in the coming days, with a wintry mix forecasted for the weekend and snow possible next Thursday.

“If there’s any believability in the groundhog,” Krack said, “let’s hope we get an early spring.”