Published: Thursday, February 15, 2007
Plowing through long hours, little sleep
In Austintown, cul-de-sacs are plowed after the straightaways.
AUSTINTOWN — Four weary road department workers sat in the Austintown Township building's break room at noon, munching lunch and cracking jokes.
They seemed in good spirits despite their heavier-than-usual workload. Or, maybe they were just punchy from lack of sleep.
"Most of us have had only two hours' sleep," Dan Megown said Wednesday.
They left work at 6 p.m. Tuesday and returned to the roads at 2 a.m. Wednesday. They were planning on staying out until 6 p.m. again and expected to be out early today to clean up more of Mother Nature's winter wrath.
"We try to plow when there's less traffic," Mike Cook said.
The down time of a winter road crew worker: Leave work at 6, lie down at 8 and be too wound up to sleep because you know you have to go back out again, complained Rick Lewis. He showed the calluses on the sides of his hands from his extra efforts.
"That's just from sleeping in the cul-de-sacs ," joked fellow worker Dave Bokesch. Bokesch leaned his head on his hand and feigned sleep while Lewis winced — not finding it funny.
Last on the list
The cul-de-sacs are a sore spot with people in Austintown, who have been calling the township administration to complain that they're still unplowed.
It's the township's policy, explained Trustee Lisa Oles, to clear the straightaways first, then do the cul-de-sacs last.
The crew said they planned on working in the cul-de-sacs after their lunch break. Oles said that she lives on one, and she just got out of her driveway about 1:30 p.m.
This particular snow presents problems, crew members said, because it's packed down on the roads and there's ice involved. The road department is also short-staffed right now, they said.
Still, they said, they knew what they signed on for and the extra work is to be expected.
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