With winter fast approaching, the city of Columbia wants to make sure its residents are ready for the first snow. The city of Columbia will host its first Snow Palooza this Thursday. The event is aimed at educating the public about how the city handles snow and ice storms and attendees will have a chance to look at snow-fighting equipment and ask city staff any questions they have about Columbia’s policy or procedures.
Barry Dalton, the spokesperson for the city’s Public Works Department, said that although Columbia hasn’t had a major storm in the past couple of years, it’s important that the city and its residents are prepared for any type of weather.
“There’s lots of nuances to the policies and procedures of a snow when there’s a snowfall for a city of this size,” Dalton said. Questions like, ‘What does it mean that you’re plowing the roads to a passable condition?’”
Topics that will be covered at the event include when and how roads and bridges are pretreated, how bus and paratransit services are affected by snow and the size of the city’s fleet.
Snow Palooza will take place from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday at the city’s LeRoy Anderson Salt Dome off of Big Bear Boulevard, and free ice scrapers will be handed out to the first 200 visitors.
