De Pere street department earns national recognition

DE PERE – In the midst of one of last winter’s worst blizzards, a city of De Pere employee rode to work on his snowmobile.

Inside the Department of Public Works garage, supervisors cooked bacon and eggs for crews, administrators climbed into plow trucks and operators worked 16-hour shifts to clear the streets.

The American Public Works Association (APWA) recently found this environment of teamwork and conscientiousness remarkable enough for national attention when it awarded De Pere its National Excellence in Snow and Ice Control Award.

Two members of the team, Street Superintendent Tony Fietzer and Public Works Director Scott Thoresen, traveled to Cleveland, Ohio, to receive the award on behalf of the department.

The De Pere Common Council also honored the department with a resolution recognizing their efforts.

“It was good to get the recognition for the team,” Fietzer said. “This is something that’s a team thing... Everybody has a part in this.”

The award wasn’t for a snowplow competition or even a cleanest-streets contest — it recognizes improvements the city has made over the past two decades using new technology, employee training and environmentally conscious practices.

The APWA looked at such aspects as materials tracking, data-driven decision making, policies, continuous improvement via after-action reviews, training, leadership, salt reduction, AVL/GPS tracking of public works vehicles, camera systems and cross-department participation during storms.

One of the most visible changes the department has made in recent years is the addition of nine-foot wing plows that enable crews to clear wider sections of pavement in a single pass.

“When I first started, we just had an 11-foot plow on the truck,” said Daryl Carter, the head of the department who has worked for the city since 1993. “Now we have a plow and a wing, so we can cover a much bigger part of the road.”

The department also uses GPS tracking, pavement-temperature sensors, cameras and computerized spreading systems that allow operators to adjust salt application rates based on conditions.

“Our trucks tell us road temperature, air temperature, dew point, how much salt we’re putting down and when the plow is up or down,” Fietzer said. “Twenty-five years ago, none of that came into play.”

The team has after-action reviews following major storms to identify ways to improve future responses, with the data helping drive those discussions.
One of the biggest changes has been the city’s effort to reduce salt use while maintaining clear roads.

In the past, De Pere used about 1,200 tons of salt per year, according to Fietzer. Salt brine, better equipment and smart-salting practices have helped the city reduce that number to about 700 tons per year.

“We’re using less salt, which is better for the environment and better financially for the community, while still getting the same if not better results,” he said.

A key strategy involves applying salt brine before storms begin, to prevent snow and ice from bonding to the pavement.

“The purpose of salt isn’t to melt everything off,” Fietzer said. “The purpose is to keep snow from bonding to the road so we can remove it mechanically with the plow.”

Using brine instead of dry salt also reduces waste. Fietzer estimates that 25% to 35% of dry salt can be lost when crystals bounce or scatter off the roadway.
The environmental impact can be significant.

“Once salt gets into the waterway, it’s very difficult to remove,” Fietzer said. “Living on the Fox River and getting our drinking water from Lake Michigan, we want to minimize how much salt we’re putting out there.”

The latter criterion — cross-department participation during storms — was evidenced when Director of Public Works Scott Thoresen, Maintenance Supervisor Tom Blohowiak and Assistant City Engineer Chase Kuffel took the wheels of snow plows to help out the street department’s 13 employees during that serious blizzard.

Director of Parks, Recreation and Forestry Marty Kosobucki pitched in with a plow attached to a city pickup truck.

“People that are normally administrative but still have a CDL will come in and run routes,” Fietzer said. “We can’t expect staff to work 50 hours straight.”
That commitment has impressed Carter, who plans to retire next spring after more than three decades with the city.

“I like everything about it,” Carter said of his career in De Pere. “The people, doing service for the community, taking pride in the community.”