Politics & Government

Warm Weather Conducive to Johnston Roadwork, Savings

Warmer and drier than normal weather has proven to be a benefit for the city of Johnston, as well as residents.

The winter that wasn't — as some weather forecasters have dubbed our run of mild temperatures and relative dearth of snow — is good for the city and some businesses.

But the balmy winter, which ended with a blast of north wind Wednesday, has curbed sales for other seasonal businesses.

Shovels, ice melt and snow blowers sit relatively untouched at the , while trees, shrubs and other plants are still being sold at .

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crews are hard at work filling in cracks on the city's roadways, at a time when they would normally be pushing mounds of snow.

"Mother Nature owed us."

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City Savings
Johnston Public Works Director Dave Cubit said while the savings the department has seen aren't as blinding as cities like Des Moines, which reportedly has saved millions, it's still something.

"Our number is about $30,000, that takes into account less overtime," he said. "It's not real scientific, look at what we've spent last year versus this year."

The city had 14 major occasions when snow crews were out at this time last year. .

So far the department has spent around $1,300 less on fuel this year compared to last.

As for salt brine and other ice-removing materials the city has spent nearly $16,000 less than last year.

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"Johnston tends to be, in most cases, the lowest cost city in the metro because of how we do it," he said. "We only count our snow costs that are above and beyond a normal eigh-hour work day. So we tend to not have the more interesting numbers than Des Moines."

Continued Roadwork
While the savings aren't anything to balk at, the work the city has been able to do because of the warm weather could later translate into more savings.

The real plus to this is that we are doing road maintenance," Cubit said. "We're able to do thing that we haven't been able to in years past."

Crews are filling cracks on Johnston roadways, thus extending the life of the road.

"Hopefully, we get the crack seal material in the cracks so we don't get water in there that freezes and causes potholes," Cubit said.

While road nue was stopped before the Christmas holiday, other work in the area has been able to continue as scheduled.

"The Northwest 62nd Avenue roadway portion of the project was shut down …simply because of temperature fluctuation."

However, work to stabilize the bank of Beaver Creek and construction on the new bridge has continued uninterrupted.

"They were scheduled to go through the winter," Cubit said. "But this weather is conducive to doing that in an efficient manner. The level of Beaver Creek is also great to take advantage of, they can drive across it, it's so low."

As for the bridge, crews will pour concrete this week and add beams in the next two weeks.

"It's just like for everything that's good for everybody, it's good for us, too," Cubit said. "We can continue to keep working because it's not buried. It's interesting the benefit to us is translatable to the benefit of the average citizen."

In Cubit's opinion, the nice winter has been a long time coming.

"It's January in Iowa, this is the interest we're due off the winters we've suffered through," he said. "Mother Nature owed us."

Unexpected Business
Local businesses have seen both benefits and drawbacks to the nice weather.

One business that has benefited from the warmer temperatures is landscaping.

Jeff Westphal, nursery manager at , said the nursery has been able to keep working and supplying product this winter.

"This has been a super mild winter, so it's made it possible to continue to do jobs, planting, landscaping and things like that," he said. "Plus, we supply plants and trees to other landscapers, so I know there are others that have been able to stay active and do jobs.

"We normally don't have this demand for trees and shrubs as far as profit, it's a good thing for us," he said.

Another benefit, the company has been able to continue employing workers that would normally only be seasonal.

"Typically they find other work or take unemployment at the end of the season, but because of the weather one has been able to stay with us for the winter," Westphal said. "I know some of the landscape crews have been able to keep guys on."

Although some landscaping businesses transform into snow removal crews in the winter, Westphal thinks the lack of snow removal jobs but continuation of landscaping could make the mild winter a wash.

Westphal offered one tip for homeowners when it comes to winter landscaping.

"A lot of evergreens, it wouldn't' be a bad idea to keep watering them, especially since it's been dry with no rain or snow," he said. "If maybe you planted something into the fall, it's not a bad idea to keep watering those to get through the dry winter if it's above freezing."

Across town at , they're waiting for a snowstorm.

For owner Gordon Sterk, the warm weather has hurt business.

"It's been a strange winter. I've never seen a winter like this in all my 60 years," he said. "The last two winters we had snow early and a lot of it."

Sterk used those winters to base his winter inventory order on for this year. Now, most of it remains on the shelves.

"When it comes to snow they don't buy salt, shovels or snow blowers unless it happens," he said. "When it comes to mowing you know the grass is going to grow, you have to have a lawn mower. With snow, you don't know when it's going to snow, so people don't spend money unless they have to."

Sterk said while the inventory doesn't go bad, not selling it means having to store it for the spring, summer and fall months. Not to mention the money it ties up.

"So that's money you can't use to purchase other things or pay things off," he said.

Sterk said the store has done nearly a third of the business it normally would do in snow blowers this year.

"Some people do preplanning, some will buy a snow blower ahead of time," he said. "People are buying because it was a planned purchase for them. Others purchase when it's snowing and they are sick of shoveling."

In just a few months, the store will begin receiving spring inventory, including fertilizer that sits in the same place the ice salt currently rests.

"You can't control the weather, you just have to go with the flow," he said. "We're just sitting here waiting for a snow storm."


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