Plows making progress against mountains of snow

 Flathead County snowplows made good progress on Tuesday clearing the county’s snow-clogged roads.

“Our goal today [Tuesday] is to have every road at least opened up,” Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty said.

There may, however, be a few rural low-traffic roads that won’t get plowed until Thursday morning, he said. Snowplows were running at full force to clear close to two feet of snow in some areas.

A couple of snowplow breakdowns on Monday during the winter storm hampered the county’s plowing ability temporarily, but all of the county road fleet was back in action on Tuesday.

Once all of the county’s 836 miles of roads have been opened up, crews will work on pushing snow berms back to regain the full width of roadway, Prunty said.

If the wind were to cause blowing and drifting snow in coming days, the priority would shift to keeping major county roads open, he added.

The city of Kalispell, also facing a snow-plowing challenge, reminded residents of plow schedules, with city plows clearing avenues on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and streets on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The Kalispell Public Works Department asked that people move parked vehicles to allow for snow removal.

“If you’re not able to move the vehicle immediately, please brush the snow off of the vehicle so plow operators can identify that it is a parked vehicle,” according to a press release from Public Works.

“City street operators are having a difficult time identifying parked vehicles from snow berms.”

Vehicles suspected of not being moved in a 72-hour period will be marked with stickers. If they are not moved within three more days, they can be towed at the owner’s expense.

The city of Whitefish will delay schedule garbage and recycling collection due to the storm. Scheduled pickup of refuse will continue where conditions permit.

The Montana Department of Transportation, meanwhile, has added contractors to haul away some of the accumulated snow from Kalispell highways.

Beginning Tuesday night, the state transportation department will work with contractors to haul snow out of downtown to designated areas on the outer edges of town.

“It’s just a lot of snow to deal with,” Engman said. “We’re running out of places to put it.”

A snowblower mounted on a loader was to blow the snow into 13 dump trucks throughout the night.

Dennis Oliver, a maintenance superintendent for the highway department, added that in the case of an equipment failure, crews could be back out Thursday beginning at midnight.