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Where Does the Snow Go? Grand Rapids Residents Continue to Dig-Out Their Homes

Posted at 9:49 PM, Jan 27, 2014
and last updated 2014-01-27 22:37:04-05

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – With three kids at home all under the age of four, Grand Rapids resident Steve Kutz has his hands full, saying he clears the snow whenever he can.

He hasn’t seen the front stairs of his family’s Eastown home for days, and the piles of snow at the end of the driveway are almost as tall as him.

“We get our driveway plowed but as you can see the plow guy, the pile got too high there, so he started pushing it across the street. Needless to say we’re pretty thankful for when the plow can make it down the street,” says Kutz.

Neighbors say backing-out can be a battle when they’re peering out over their snow-blown driveway, or if cars are scattered up and down the street ignoring the odd/even parking.

“Makes it difficult to get out of the driveway, we’ve been stuck a couple of times at the end,” says Jill Ainslie, Grand Rapids resident.

The City of Grand Rapids Public Service Director James Hurt says about 25 snow plow drivers are working around the clock in 12-hour shifts, 24/7 for the past two weeks. He says it’s inevitable that some snow will be pushed back onto residents’ property.

“We’re putting it into people’s driveways and unfortunately that’s where the snow has to go. One tip for the residents would be to try to put snow to the right side of your driveway, so when the plow comes, it doesn’t push more snow into your driveway, it pushes it down the street,” explains Hurt.

Hurt says to help lower the towering snow piles, dump trucks remove some of the snow to the dump site, which is located at 2001 Butterworth Street SW.

“Our employees are working hard, they’re getting tired out there. Sometimes it’s difficult to get down some of our streets with the parked cars. We just ask our residents to be patient, we’ll get through there, we’ll get your street plowed,” adds Hurt.

Hurt also reminds residents to move parked cars to one side of the street, and to obey odd/even parking, in order for the plows to travel down all streets.

While many locals call this a bad winter, they also say they’re used to it.

“Well I’m a Grand Rapidian, born and weird; I’ve seen this before, but not lately,” laughs Ainslie.