By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH — If it’s not one thing, it’s another.
Street crews around the county finally got a break from the heavy snow Thursday. Instead they had to deal with a blast of arctic air that kept temperatures  well below zero.
For City Street Department Superintendent Jim Marquardt, dealing with the weather did have a bright side.
“We used very little salt and sand the last few days,” said Marquardt. “When it’s snowing like that, you don’t put down much because you’re just trying to keep up, scraping it off.”
The cold also diminishes the use of salt on the roads.

“You don’t put a lot of it down because it just doesn’t do much,” said Marquardt. “Once it gets below 5 degrees, the melting process is really slow. In places where we get some sun and some traffic that will help, but on the back streets and some residential areas, it’s going to be the way it is for awhile.”
Drifting snow was not as great a concern for city workers as those in the county.
“Some of our outer roads like Pioneer or Oak roads... it can be a problem but in the city, not so much,” said Marquardt. “That’s one of the things that can get you; driving around in town you think that it’s not so bad but then you get out by the football fields at the high school and it’s a whole different story.”
The main concern was for sanitation workers who had to battle the sub-zero cold to run the city’s garbage routes. Wind chills were at very dangerous lows .
“They bundle up as much as they can. We have hoods like the ones the firemen use and you can stay pretty warm in those,” said Marquardt. “We’ll send some other guys out in a smaller truck to help by picking things up to shorten the route for them. If they get done early, they’ll go to the next day’s route and get what they can on that to shorten it up because we’ll be battling the same thing. We just tell them do what you can, but if you get cold, you stop and get in the truck and warm up.”