At the Dec. 17 Lake George Village Board meeting, former Warren County Public Works Superintendent Bill Lamy explains a new snow and ice removal plan.
Photo by Thom Randall
LAKE GEORGE | While a number of highway employees of towns surrounding Lake George have taken steps to reduce the use of road salt in an effort to reduce lakewater pollution, the procedures have not been standardized or fully documented.
But that’s about to change.
At the Lake George Village Board’s December meeting, former Warren County Public Works Superintendent Bill Lamy presented a draft of a Snow and Ice Removal Operational Plan to the board that he had prepared.
The plan, sponsored by The S.A.V.E. Lake George Partnership, is to establish a policy and provide detailed instructions to area highway supervisors on how to remove snow and ice while minimizing road salt use in the Lake George basin.
The plan was prepared after consulting with highway supervisors of towns surrounding the lake and is to be used as reference material for all highway personnel.
Lamy said the plan is to be used as a training tool, as well as setting a baseline for analyzing results in cutting salt usage, plus providing a written standard for road clearing methodology.
He added that it would also serve as a supporting document in defending a lawsuit stemming from a vehicle crash on local winter roadways.
Lamy said the plan calls for plow trucks to maintain a 2.5 hours cycle time on main routes, to be increased late at night, and that roads should be passable within four hours of a storm.
Also, Lamy said that if salt or other de-icing substances are spread on roadways early in a storm or beforehand, snow and ice are more efficiently removed because they don’t bond to the pavement — and less salt overall needs to be spread on roads to keep them safe.
“The village is tackling this already with best practices in mind,” Lamy said.
Already, the village has reduced salt use substantially, and they have new “live edge” plow blades that clear pavement more effectively.
“We’ve got the momentum and were moving in the right direction. We’ve slowed the use of salt,” Lamy said.
The board subsequently adopted Lamy’s plan and policy manual as drafted.
In other business conducted at the Dec. 17 meeting, the board approved special event and facility use permits for:
• The Adirondack Extreme softball tournament scheduled for June 21-23 and July 12-14, both on the village recreational center fields;
• Rock the Dock concerts at the village’s Steel Pier on Beach Road;
• The Lake George Music Festival’s public concert on Aug. 16 in Shepard Park;
• The annual Lake George Free to Breathe 5K footrace on Oct. 19, a fundraiser for the American Lung Association.
The board members also set March 19 as the date for the village election. Also, they declared as surplus one pickup truck and one dump truck; both are to be advertised for bids.
