Hello again. Although not official at the time of this writing, winter is here and the City continues to hum along in spite of the weather. All of our road projects are completed for this year with most of the building construction projects closed in and ready for inside work. The only exception that I can think of is the hospital project that still has a lot of steel to go up, but that work will also continue through the winter.
Speaking of buildings, the City Commission recently conducted a tour of the new Public Works facility on Wright street and I have to tell you that it is very impressive. Our contractor, along with City staff, has done a very good job designing a building that will serve the public very well long into the future.
Public Works crews have rotated into their winter operations which primarily deal with snow removal and, especially, keeping our streets clear and safe. I don’t want to miss this opportunity to remind drivers (especially those of you that
are not familiar with winter driving) to adjust your driving to the weather conditions. As a retired Police Officer, I can tell you with some authority that there is a “learning curve” when transitioning from dry pavement driving to driving on the snow. We always commented on the need for drivers (even locals) to “retrain” themselves after the first snow of the year as there is a big increase in traffic crashes during the first few days of snowy conditions. It usually results in unhappy drivers but happy vehicle repair shops. Also, don’t forget the City-wide winter parking ban. Vehicles are not allowed to be parked on any City streets from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. from Nov. 1, 2016 until April 1, 2017.
Well, that’s it for now. We can look forward to another busy summer in 2017 as we have several high impact road construction plans on the table and new building projects in addition to those already in progress. Stay warm for now.