County details winter priorities and equipment shortages amid heavy snow

County infrastructure staff briefed commissioners on winter operations and priorities during the Jan. 27 meeting.

Skye Meaders said the county prioritizes mains and secondary roads before moving into subdivisions, where crews attempt to clear a lane in-and-out first and then return curb to curb when possible. He said subdivisions are generally not salted except for hills and curves and urged residents to sign up for county alerts. Meaders described heavy snowfall (he cited figures of 86 inches in Granger and 59 inches in South Bend in the update), said the county had experienced equipment outages (more than 20 trucks at one point) but still had roughly 45–50 trucks on the road, and explained that staffing and equipment constraints, not lack of effort, accounted for uneven clearing in some neighborhoods.