Tri-Cities roads in fair shape

Route 31 was in good shape through Batavia and Geneva by Thursday afternoon, major roads like Fabyan Parkway and Wilson Street were clear, and side streets were passable.

Geneva Township highway commissioner Mark Wissing was out Thursday afternoon checking the 10 miles of roads for which he is responsible. Many of those miles are in the big Mill Creek subdivision on the west side, which lies in both Geneva and Blackberry townships. Geneva Township contracts with Blackberry to clear the main roads in that subdivision, and handles the smaller streets and cul-de-sacs itself by hiring private plow drivers.

At Wenmoth Road and Fabyan Parkway, Wissing paused. “This was a terrible spot (Wednesday),” he said, because of an abandoned car on the side of the road. “We couldn’t clear it until Thursday,” when the car got towed. An endloader had to be used to clear the intersection of Deerpath Road and Fabyan.

The next step will be spreading salt to melt the snow pack, including calcium chloride, which will also help dry up road moisture, he said.

Rodney Feece, Blackberry Township’s highway commissioner, said all 55 miles of township roads were cleared by Thursday. “We spent a lot of time in Mill Creek,” he said, because it has a lot of cul-de-sacs. The sacs take longer to clear than regular streets. “There’s too much snow to push around in a small, tight circle,” he said, so they used endloaders.

In North Aurora, Public Works Director Michael Glock estimated that 90 percent of the streets had been cleared. The crews were working Thursday on knocking down high corner piles. So far, village workers had put in 190 hours of overtime, he said.

Geneva Public Works Director Dan Dinges reported workers have put in about 300 hours of overtime as of Thursday afternoon. Crews were doing the detailed work of clearing roads curb to curb, especially in the downtown business district, moving snow out of public parking lots and clearing downtown sidewalks.

Geneva plows state Routes 31 and 38 through town.