Residents reminded not to push snow across county roads

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Following a snowstorm like the one last week that dropped nearly a foot of snow, Washington County Highway Superintendent Bill Hansel wants to remind residents not to push snow out onto the county roads.

“We're still having that issue,” he told the Board of Supervisors at its Jan. 26 meeting.

Hansel offered the board a photo, which showed how a resident along County Road 40 had cleared their lane and pushed about three feet of snow across the road and into the ditch, leaving several piles of snow behind.

“The only good about this snow is that it's soft,” Hansel said. “If that had been a wet one and it refroze, it could have taken an oil pan out of a vehicle.”

Hansel said a motor grader had already been by the residence and cleared the road. A county roads employee came across the snow and cleaned it up.

However, Hansel said if a driver had come over the hill and come upon the snow, panicked and hit the breaks, it could have easily caused an accident.

“I'm trying to keep us out of a lawsuit if at all possible,” he said.

The county roads department is sending letters to people who they catch pushing snow across the roads.

“We're trying to get it corralled a little bit, but there's still a lot of it going on,” he said.