MADISON (WKOW) — As another winter storm loomed, Madison city plows tried their best to prepare. For the first time in roughly 40 years, they salted the entire city as they spread minimal salt on residential streets. The streets superintendent said it’s a good thing they did before Mother Nature dumped several inches across the city.With snow storm after snow storm, plow drivers can’t seem to catch a break.“We had three in nine days,” said Charlie Romines, the Madison streets superintendent. “This winter has been pretty insane as anyone who hasn’t spent the last month in Florida or Arizona would know.”After last week’s ice storm, plow drivers knew they had to think ahead to be ready for the storm. On Monday, crews began spreading salt on neighborhood streets in Madison, hoping it would cut into the ice to give drivers a better grip once the snow started to fall.“We made the very difficult choice, in recognition that sand was not doing what we needed it to do, to go out and lightly salt a four foot strip through the middle of our residential streets,” said Romines.Aware of the impacts that salt in runoff has on our lakes, Romines said crews use about half the amount of salt they use on main thoroughfares. Romines said safety of plow drivers, city contractors and other drivers was the top priority.No plows or garbage trucks got stuck throughout the day on Tuesday as the city considered the pre-storm treatment a success.“Given the results we’ve seen so far, we’re pretty pleased with it,” said Romines.No additional salt will be spread on residential streets, according to Romines. He said he hopes to have crews out spreading salt on those streets on Wednesday to give drivers a better grip.
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