March 2012

March weather kept the crews busy, parts of the county received several feet of snow, then several inches of rain before a few more feet of snow!  Now the higher elevations throughout the southern part of Plumas County appear to have an average snow pack.  With the warmer temperatures in the forecast, it may not last long but should reduce fire hazards this summer.

Along with all the moisture we also experienced high winds causing several temporary road closures, power and phone outages and extra work for the crews due to trees and tree limbs being blown into the overhead lines and into the roadways.

When the crews were not plowing snow, they were cleaning drainage facilities, removing debris from fallen trees, cutting brush and removing hazard trees.

By March 19^th, the ground saturation level had reached the failure point once again on a portion of the Bucks-Oro highway near Walker Plains causing the roadway to slip down the hillside.  When the road is cleared of snow this spring, the Quincy crew will work to stabilize the fill slope and regain two lanes for the summer travelers.   

Public Works was successful in filling a vacancy for a full time permanent heavy equipment mechanic in the equipment maintenance division this month and is hopeful in filling a position on the Quincy road maintenance crew in the near future.

Mark Bennett, Jerry Blinn and I attended the annual Trindel Road Commissioners Meeting.  The training is an interactive two day event and was held in Williams Ca. this year.  The topics were “hearing conservation”, “what OSHA will ask for” and “what is an incident”.  I believe we were able to gain some useful information to share with Public Works.