The St. Joseph Street Department barely had time to finish clearing up after the last round of winter weather when snow hit the city Wednesday, the second time in a week.

“Yesterday we had the guys in and took all the spreaders off and cleaned all the salt out and washed everything out real good and greased stuff to make sure everything was ready to go,” Keven Schneider Assistant Superintendent Streets said.

Schneider said Wednesday morning crews were out salting routes but had not completed all of the route by the time the storm hit.

“We have been out on all of the emergencies and we have been out on the secondaries which are the connector routes that connect the emergencies together,” Schneider said.

At 1 p.m. Schneider said crews were monitoring road conditions trying to decide if it would be necessary to plow routes or if salt would be enough.

“It is melting where there is traffic,” Schneider said. “It’s still up in the air because it depends on how much we get.”

If it snows enough to plow Schneider said crews would be working on emergency routes as people head home from work.

“The emergencies no matter what are going to be at least decent,” he said. “The main thing is going to be the residential. Some of the hills that haven’t been treated yet might be a tad bit slick.”

Schneider recommends sticking to the main routes and taking it slow.  It takes 24 hours to salt all the routes in St. Joseph.  If crews have to plow, Schneider said it can take 72 to 96 hours to hit all the routes.