When the greater Chicago area was slammed by a blizzard last February, longtime Elgin School District employees Bill Meyer and Don Centanni turned in a performance worthy of the Snow Business All-Stars of Snow & Ice honor, says Supervisor of Grounds Joseph Creadon.
The department is responsible for more than 65 locations spread over 100 square miles. The school district contracts the plowing of 26 locations to three vendors and maintains the other 39 locations. All deicing (including the contracted plow sites) is done in house, and the department maintains more than six miles of sidewalks, 100 lots and numerous miles of drive lanes.
During the blizzard, Creadon says, Meyer (a foreman) and Centanni (a driver) went above and beyond to help.
Centanni and Meyer spent hours clearing snow. After a quick nap, they jumped into the next task. Centanni oversaw the sites that had been subcontracted while Meyer ran a crew of 17 skid steers that were brought in to clear the 6.5 miles of perimeter sidewalks that had been buried after the city completed its final pushbacks. The transportation department also had to start, dig out and move 350 buses, plow the spaces and replace them after the lanes and other areas were cleared. In all, the department (with the assistance of a few construction contractors) moved more than 150 semi-loads of snow in two days.
The students' safety comes first—so no corners can be cut. No snow or ice can be left in a bus unloading area where a child could slip underneath a bus. Plows are not operated around children, so those essential areas are managed first and once school is in session, the rest completed.
"Without their assistance I don't know how I would have made it through that week," Creadon says. "When school reopened, we had access and egress at every entrance, all hydrants exposed, all corners knocked down to two feet so no child stepped from behind a pile into traffic, all bus lanes cleared and all essential parking lot and playground areas hauled away."
Cheryl Higley is editorial director of Snow Business magazine and a contributing editor to GoPlow.com.
