If there is a foot of snow on every inch of the 106 miles of road in the Hanover area, it would fill Webster Hall more than 250 times.
Together, the College and the town of Hanover are charged with the task of plowing, shoveling, salting and sanding to keep the roads and sidewalks safe after a snowstorm.
The town expects to use 1,700 tons of salt; 5,000 tons of sand; and spend more than $118,000 in snow removal efforts this year, Highway Superintendent Leo Hamill said.
Last year the College spent over $400,000 to get rid of its share of the snow, according to John Gratiot, associate director of facilities, operations and management. This winter the College has hired three independent contractors and is putting its labor crew, grounds crew and custodians to work plowing, shoveling and clearing the snow from roads and sidewalks.
All employees of the Hanover Public Works Department, Hanover Buildings and Grounds and the Sewer Plant personnel are on call during the winter to help with plowing, salting and sanding the road in the Hanover area, Hamill said.
The workers are "the cream of the crop of the Valley," he said.
Most of the work is done at night to have the streets and sidewalks cleared by the time people wake up the next morning, Gratiot said.
The workers are on call much of the winter. "It is important to get in and get the snow ... before people start to pack it down. It takes a lot less hours in the long run," Gratiot said.
Each piece of equipment is assigned to a specific route, based on its capability. Pick-up trucks with plows clear the small streets and parking lots. A sidewalk snow blower clears some of the sidewalks. Remaining roads are cleared with trucks, a grader and a loader.
The town's equipment includes several pieces that cost well over $100,000, Hamill said.
The College crews have a priority list of paths to clear, Gratiot said. They receive a list of handicapped students and where they usually need to go so they can clear those areas first. Areas near the old hospital and the Norris Cotton Cancer Center are also top priority, he said.
After the high priority areas are cleared, "we just keep moving as many hours as it keeps snowing," Gratiot said. After some big storms workers must take shifts of up to 24 hours, he said.
"Last year was a big one. Last March people spent more time at work than at home," Gratiot said. "It's supposed to be the other way around."
But this year has not been easy either, he said. The three separate snowstorms over the last two weeks left more than a foot and a half of snow around campus. But he said one huge storm is worse than three smaller ones.
"Two feet of snow all in one storm, those are really tough storms ... they wear thin and people get worn out and grumpy," Gratiot said.
Plow routes are preset, and usually take about six hours to complete, Hamill said.
Parking after midnight is illegal on all public streets in Hanover from Nov. 15 until May 1 each year so that the roads are clear for plow passage. Cars may be parked on Main Street until 1 a.m.
The Hanover Police Department tows cars only when the Public Works Department specifically asks them to, Hanover Police Chief Kurt Schimke said.
The Police Department attempts to contact the car's owner before towing it. "We do an extraordinary job of attempting to contact people. It's not like we're unilaterally going out and removing a car," Schimke said.
The Grand Union parking lot is designated for parking, without the risk of being towed, during a snow storm.
After a snow storm, workers launch a two-day snow removal process. The town uses sidewalk equipment, called holders, to push snow off the curbs. Graders pick up the snow and push it to the center of the road. And a huge snow blower blows the snow into trucks and dumps it near the Town Garage, Hamill said.
At the same time, spreaders are sanding and salting the most traveled and steepest routes, he added.
Though College workers try to clear the snow without actually removing it, Gratiot said sometimes the volumes become overwhelming.
"We push as much as we can as far as we can," Gratiot said. But many of the major parking lots have no room to contain the snow, so some of it is trucked out to a field north of the medical school.
