So far, this winter among worst for road department
William Boyd, a mechanic with the Cibola County Roads Department, greases parts of a salt spreading truck on Thursday. With the onset of bad weather just around the corner, the road department is already prepped and ready to go in the event of hazardous weather. — © 2009 Gallup Independent / Brian Leddy

Copyright © 2009
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — This winter has been one of the most difficult for he Cibola County Road Department — so far — Jimmy Chavez, director of public works, said.

“We got hit with a big storm before Christmas, then just after we got hit again,” he said.

Those two winter storms dropped about 18-20 inches of snow on county roads in the Zuni Mountains and on the south side of Bluewater Lake, there was about 2 feet, he said.

“We had two blades grading Cibola County Road 49, which is Zuni Canyon Road, for two weeks,” he said. “Normally it takes us two to three days.”

Chavez said the county also bladed about four miles of a Forest Service road to help some people who were snowed in.

There was also quite a bit of snow on Cibola County roads 47 and 48, Chavez said.

“Those roads are out toward Ramah,” he said “and had about 18-20 inches of snow there as well.”

Before winter hit this year, the county mechanics and road workers prepared the four blades, one snow plow and one salt truck, which has a plow in front of it, he said.

“The worst storm we’ve had in the past 25 years was in 1986,” Chavez said.

That winter, a major storm dropped a lot of snow, he said, more than this year.

“We had to use front end loaders to remove snow in front of the blades, because they couldn’t move the snow, it was so deep,” he said.

“There was at 3 three feet of snow — from one storm — that year,” he said. “We had to help out the Pueblo of Acoma that year too.

“There were people stranded in villages and couldn’t get out.

The governor called in the National Guard to help also,” he said.

Chavez said the outlook for the remainder of this winter is just a few flurries.

“I hope it doesn’t snow like it did in December,” he said.
To contact reporter Jim Tiffin call (505) 285-4560 or e-mail: jtiffin.independent@yahoo.com.