"We're just trying to deal with winter," says County Engineer

Winter has arrived earlier than normal in Winneshiek County this year.

Winneshiek County Engineer Lee Bjerke says that means his department has gotten phone calls about snowfall earlier than normal.  Decorah received seven-and-a-half inches of snow in November over four different days.

That meant that--even though travel was difficult at times--the county's snow removal policy didn't call for snow plows to be sent out on nights, weekends or holidays.  Bjerke says the standard set for county road crews is that there must be four inches of snow or more before the plows are called out after hours.

The only exception to this rule is if a sheriff's deputy asks for help on a particularly bad stretch of road.  However, Bjerke says county snow plow operators work closely with county sheriff's deputies--so it's no use to call up the road department and pretend you're calling on the orders of a sheriff's deputy--as happened recently.