PRESCOTT - The sparkling appearance alongside a number of city streets this week is the aftermath of snow-removal efforts that took place during the Monday/Tuesday snowstorm, says a city official.
Prescott Field Operations Manager Chad McDowell reported Wednesday that the glass-like appearance on the shoulders and gutters of about 10 city streets stems from a move by the city to try a new material to treat icy and snowy streets.
McDowell said the city recently switched to Ice Slicer, a product that combines sand and salt to clear icy streets.
This year, the city began experimenting to produce its own variation of the product, McDowell said, incorporating a portion of cinders, the material that the city applied to icy streets for years.
And in a pilot program, the city also began producing another variation that incorporated pulverized glass from the recycled bottles that it collects at its transfer station.
"We were trying it with some crushed glass," McDowell said. "But we were only supposed to use that around here (at the transfer station off Sundog Ranch Road)."
In the middle of Monday night, however, McDowell said a worker accidentally filled some of the snow-removal trucks with the material that contained crushed glass.
"Some of that material did get out there," McDowell said, estimating that the glass combination ended up on about 10 streets in Prescott. "It happened because we were operating 24 hours a day, and someone happened to load up from the wrong piles."
Noting that the glass product worked well because of the reflection from the sun, McDowell allowed that "it's hard to sell people on the idea."
Therefore, he said his crews would be working in coming days to sweep the glass material from the streets, and likely would not use the material in future storms.
Meanwhile, McDowell said the city would continue to use a material that combines sand and salt, which he said is safer and more effective than pure cinders.
City Manager Steve Norwood also referred to the new material during Tuesday's City Council meeting, pointing out that the city regularly gets complaints about the impacts from cinders.
"We have gotten a lot of claims (for compensation) from cinders," Norwood told the council.
McDowell said drivers often complain that large pieces of the cinder material leave dents in their vehicles and breaks windshields.
In addition, McDowell said, cinders pose a hazard for bicyclists and motorcyclists.
"It costs us about $40,000 to clean up (the cinders) from a big storm," McDowell said.
Even so, he said the city would continue to use a small portion of cinders in its snow-removal material, because that is what Prescott drivers have become accustomed to.
Posted: Saturday, December 12, 2009
Article comment by:
Parker Anderson
Ah, blogs! You can even make death threats from the safe, dark, cloak of anonymity........
Posted: Saturday, December 12, 2009
Article comment by:
I thought we are United States of America
Hey Fortyfive get used to the fact that people from CA move to AZ. Oh guess what, it snows in the CA mountains too! Also if people never moved you would not be living in Prescott either.
Posted: Friday, December 11, 2009
Article comment by:
Curtis Russell
Ever heard of: The Peter Principle? - "People Rise To The Level Of Their Incompetence!" (Re: Prescott Town Government). TO: "No Name Provided" Re: Parker Anderson - could your comment be any more disgusting? How old are you anyway - 10? GROW UP! And for all who are complaining about schools not being closed; use your own judgment and common sense. If weather conditions are a concern to you, regarding safety, than keep your kiddies home and bake cookies with them or something! Their life is more important than your job or them missing one day of school! Most children need a day off from school anyway; its been shown beneficial to their mental health and general overall health issues. Regarding spreading of glass all over Prescott streets - the fine folks of Prescott need to pool together and demand firing whomever is responsible and have them pay for the clean up cost/damage. Take charge! Take control of your town - you pay for it!
Posted: Friday, December 11, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
To Parker Anderson,
with any luck one of them will.
Posted: Friday, December 11, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
I live in chino Valley and drove our streets early a.m. Tuesday morning. Our roads are not plowed but neither do they have glass. I am just thankful the people running Prescott aren't coming to CV to run things.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Kim
This town is run by a clown circus. Welcome to Prescott! Watch as the town officials get out of their clown car to attend their town hall meetings. This town is something else!
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Parker Anderson
I don't drive; I walk everywhere I go. Yes, it's miserable walking to work on mornings like we've had this past week, but I have far less worries than the rest of you do, so there! You should try it sometime, the only thing that causes me worry is wondering if all of these slipping, sliding cars will run over me!
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Who's Head Is Up Their What??
After reading these comments about glass on the streets, I am really glad there was no where I had to drive to in the last couple days. Hopefully by the time I do need to go somewhere, all the other car's tires will have already picked up the glass on the roads so that I do not get a flat. Thank you to all the other drivers who have to go out in these conditions ... I appreciate you! Doesn't anyone in our city govt. have any common sense?
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
It's a Snow Job Alright
More Info you offered nothing to support the stupidity of using glass to melt ice. I went to the website you list and failed to see any mention of crushed glass being used as an ice melting material. The only thing it said the glass was good for was as a fill material. And that isn't safe either because of the fine glass dust workers are subject to breathing in. I guess you can imagine breathing glass dust would wreak havoc on your lungs. It sure does appear there was alot more than one city driver spreading the glass and it seems to be on more than just a few streets. I would guess there are only a few streets that didn't get the glass pieces. I would also guess the poor workers were ordered to use the glass material. In addition, the plowing of the main roadways was a joke. Leaving a ten foot wide strip of snow down the middle of the streets made it difficult for little cars to get across and scraped the bottom of my car when it was frozen. I don't blame the poor workers. I know they are shorthanded and worked until they were completely exhausted. I do blame the city for not having enough street crew to do the actual work. But there sure seems to be an awful lot of bosses. I would also guess this article is nothing more than political nonsense to cover the stupid mistake of someone in charge that obviously knows nothing about snow removal.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
New Englander
Call me crazy but wouldn't it make sense to have a snow removal plan. Such as restricted parking on city streets so they can be plowed efficiently. The narrow part of Rosser is a prime example. How about clearing the schools effectively? Plus maybe some of you people should learn how to drive and courtesy in the snow. And once again how about Kevin Kapp. lets take bad road conditions and then add thousands of students and inexperienced drivers thanks for endangering everyone that had to be on the roads as well as all our students.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Idioits reign!
Whomever is in charge of our streets is an idiot! Period! And more than one person and more than one truck spread pulverized glass and a lot of sharp long shards over many of our streets. Many more than ten! Complete idiocy! I hope the city has a class action suit on its hands. Having lived in Chicago - you do NOT want any SALT on your streets. Period. It kills adjacent vegitation, and rusts out the bottoms of cars. Cinders are fine. This guy still can't properly fill a pot hole, and now throws glass on our streets. What exactly does it take in Prescott for a city employee to be fired for incompetence ... and for a pathetic excuse for his actions?
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
Recently purchasing new set of tires I will tell you this, IF I get a flat due to this so called "Accident" trust me the City of Prescott will be receiving a bill for a new tire.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Tongue in cheek......
Guys, it's really simple. If you don't want glass on the streets or you want your street plowed early, find out where your council memebers live and move to the same neighborhood. I am sure they are not getting any of this stuff. With regards "Dont have the money", well, with 3 City managers and a ton of time wasters and money wasters at city hall, we will never have the money. Get rid of Norwood and his little circus and get rid of McDowell now. What a winner he is.......glass on the streets. Good idea. You mental giant
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
no bare feet
after driving to frys thursday I put my car in garage now its got galss all over the garage floor,I hope I can get it all cleaned up .
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
More info....please read!!
http://www.wsu.edu/~recycle/files/CurrentTrendsGlassRecycling.ppt#257,9,End Uses of Pulverized Glass
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
PRESCOTT, DUMBzona
CLEAN UP THE GLASS AND GET OUT OF OUR TOWN! (and hope no one in my family is harmed by your "MISTAKE?")
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Fortyfive
If a quarter of the people in this town knew what was being done for what reasons, maybe you'd understand. Prescott is full of so many cry babies its not even funny. Yes, the glass wasn't a smart idea, but I do know that the guys out there work their butts off to clear those roads. And because of the economy, the city doesn't have the budget to hire more people for the crews. As it is now, the crews are split doing two, 12-hour shifts to plow. And if you can't drive in snow, get out of Prescott. It's in the mountains and its going to snow. Go back to California where you belong and do your crying there.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Do some research before you judge!!
http://www.t2.unh.edu/spring03/pg6.html
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Plowing for Dummies
I also like how they don't even plow the whole street, and bunch up piles of snow in the middle of main streets like Cortez and then just wait for the sun to melt it off...of course it refreezes when in shadow and at night...
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
No name provided
How about just some good old fashioned plowing BEFORE the AM rush hour? I think this has proven to be very efficient over anything else. The use of glass? What the heck were you people thinking? Oh, that's right, I forgot...we live in Prescott, our leaders here DON'T think...and never have. I heard they had 10 persons out plowing roads, and pulled 5 of them off to take care of downed trees. Wow, another brilliant decision from our genius leaders. No salt (not now, not ever). Definitely NO GLASS. Just plow the roads and cinder them. How hard is that to comprehend?
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Long Time Resident
While there are always a couple of voices out there who will, for their own agenda, claim that "all is well", if not downright wonderful, with the way the city handles snowy roads, the fact is that conditions are DEPLORABLE with regard to how many neighborhood streets still are very dangerous, several days after the storm. And let's face it, the storm we had on Monday had some very damaging winds, but the amount of snow wasn't that drastic. People get paid a lot of money to make sure such matters are better managed. It's just your standard "rip-off" against a customer, in this case, the tax payers. By the way, it DOES look like we ARE going to wait until next year for the Demerse project to be finished. Could we please hear from a couple folks who also think that project is going along well? And I'm going to bet that the residents of the area and the high school kids who need to walk home up that way are not going to be among that group of lackeys. But I know you lackeys are out there somewhere. Come on, let's hear all the excuses. Tell us how we really don't know what's "involved" in such matters.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Ukraine Blaine
How about just keeping the roads plowed?
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Wake up Prescott....
How can you tell when City management are not telling the truth? Their lips are moving. McDowell is accustomed to CYA and his good ole boys do a job at assisting him.
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Think before you act
Well thanks for trying to protect our windshields & the city's (meaning taxpayers') liability budget. HOWEVER, now I can't walk my dog in my neighborhood because there are SHARP pieces of glass everywhere. I hope the city really does fix this mistake and clean this up. Some of it is going to be blown into yards for pets & kids to walk on later. I know times are tough for the city but COULD WE GET SOME MANAGEMENT & COMMON SENSE GOING PLEASE?!
Posted: Thursday, December 10, 2009
Article comment by:
Snow Job
Go back to cinders because the roads are still a traffic hazard. What happened to the good old way of plowing. The roads are still bad because the cities lack of understanding. I use to live on Robinson Dr. The roads were clean off every snow storm. It has been 4 days and the roads are still icy and has snow on them. Go back to old way.
