Snow Operations

It's time to pull in your street basketball hoops. Thanks to everyone who already has done this!

Crews begin in October tagging hoops with an orange notice about this -- typically close to 100.

During the winter especially, hoops fit into the "nuisance" category in several ordinances, because they can create a hazard for plows. The city is not responsible for damage to your hoop. Police may help support Field Services by speaking to neighbors who still have hoops out as the season progresses.

You can find your maintenance section of the city on our website, linked here. There's an overall map, plus detailed maps of each section. 

We use these for street sweeping and snow plowing, in particular. For snow plowing, we assign crew members by section, though there's not a set order. All sections are the same priority.  

Depending on the day and time, you may not see the same driver in your section. And, yes, the sections look large for one driver, but our crews do the best they can with the resources we have. Especially because we have a night shift during the winter, there's typically one person per section. As sections are completed, teammates will double up and help others.

We'd like to remind you of a part of state law meant to help with everyone's winter safety. (It's Michigan Vehicle Code section 257.677a for those interested.) 

This says you cannot place (plow/blow) snow, ice or slush on or across the road, or even on the shoulder. This can create dangerous situations for drivers and block their vision. 

Please keep this in mind if you hire someone to plow your driveway, because it applies. And please point your snow blower toward your yard, not the street. 

If you see this happening, you can call the non-emergency police number.

Name-A-Plow

The City of Battle Creek is thrilled to announce the winning names from our snowplow naming contest, which spanned two winter seasons and yielded 20 winning names. You can find out which trucks are assigned to which maintenance districts by visiting: https://battlecreekmi.gov/539/City-Sections.

We purchased about 1,000 snow stakes this year (2018), and have placed most of them around the city.
We typically edge streets without curb, and place them at angles, bends, and curves -- places where they make sense to help guide our plow drivers.

Here, Jim Shaffer is pounding a stake at Wahwahtaysee Way and Valleyview Road, and you see stakes lined up on Briarhill Drive.

We don't place stakes everywhere, but try to mark key areas ... we encourage you to place stakes, too, if it makes sense at your property.

Let's talk salt and sand!

We receive two types of salt delivery -- one in October (because you never know) of 500 tons at $60.43/ton; and multiple deliveries throughout the season of 5,500 tons at $54.45/ton.

Different weather conditions factor into the decision to drop salt. When the temperature is below 20 degrees, salt takes a long time to work. We do pre-treat salt with a liquid, corn-based de-icer that helps it stick to the roads. Sunshine makes a huge difference in helping along this process.

We generally do not salt local streets, due to the cost of salt. However, we do salt some local hills and intersections.

Some neighbors ask if we use sand... generally not because, in an urban location like Battle Creek, it can wash into and clog the storm sewers. However, there are times we use a small amount, like when roads are extremely icy and the temperature is extremely low. If salt isn't working on hard-packed snow in an intersection, we will use sand. We do not use sand downtown.