By Mike Finney

DOVER — It’s been several years since the city has had to experience a wintry weather event like the one that froze over the area just two weeks ago.

One might think Public Works Director Sharon Duca and her staff might have been out of practice when it comes to dealing with such weather emergencies, but it turned out they proved otherwise.

After coping with a tornado last summer, what’s the big deal with a little snow and ice?

Luckily, it turned out that Dover did not experience quite the winter-weather headache that Texas did, where there were widespread power outages and people left stranded in their homes.

Randy Robertson, Dover’s new city manager, recently arrived on his new job and was quite impressed by the city’s Public Works staff in dealing with the icy event.

“(Sharon Duca’s) done a great job, and her team did fantastic,” Mr. Robertson said at last week’s virtual meeting of Dover City Council. “It was ice, it wasn’t snow, and there is a different level there, and we don’t see that very often, as I understand, so I do think it’s very important for (councilmen) to know.

“Sharon had good command and control of why we’re doing what we’re doing.”
Ms. Duca said her department used nearly 150 tons of salt during the storm, which represented about 38% of what the city has used so far this winter.

There were also more than 200 man-hours associated with just the roadwork alone, not including grounds work associated with city properties.

“The snow and ice storm that we recently experienced (Feb. 18) was actually rather unusual for Dover,” said Ms. Duca. “It’s been quite a number of years since we’ve had a storm of that nature.

“The storm had started out as snow, but turned quickly into sleet, freezing rain and snow, and unfortunately, the temperatures never got above 32 degrees, which caused an ice formation of about 2 inches on many of our roadways.”

The city’s pretreatment for roads began Feb. 17, the day before the storm hit, with brine sprayed on emergency routes and salt on critical and priority routes.

Public Works staff responded to the winter-weather emergency beginning at 4 a.m. Feb. 18 and underwent an extended emergency response of 36 hours, with staffers working around the clock.

The city’s sanitation services also continued throughout the storm and were able to complete routes on time.

According to the Dover Police Department, there were nine accidents during the storm, and half of them were on public roadways.

City Councilman Ralph Taylor tipped his hat to Ms. Duca for the city’s response to the winter storm.

“Excellent job. I was very impressed,” Councilman Taylor said. “You’re the first line of defense. Whenever we call Public Works for whatever the situation, the people who are answering the phone are knowledgeable, they’re professional, they’re friendly and welcoming, and they are trying to do everything they can to solve the issues.”