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West Memphis digging out of snowstorm aftermath

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Winter weather puts new office of emergency management to the test

By JOHN RECH

news@theeveningtimes.com

The record-setting winter weather last week tested the cohesiveness of the onemonth- old West Memphis Office of Emergency Management and West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon’s administration. Both OEM Director DeWayne Rose and the mayor gave the city management team high marks while recapping city response to the ice and snow storms. City Utilities generated extra power to avoid rolling blackouts to its customers that were experienced elsewhere across the region. The mayor addressed specific concerns forwarded by Ward 2 representative Melanie Hutchinson that her constituency reported snow removal efforts showed partiality for ‘certain areas’ of the town.

Rose recounted organizing the city snow response effort.

“We started preplanning efforts when the bad weather was anticipated to come in,” said Rose. ‘We began making sure we had all our major elements in place, the major stakeholders in the city government, obviously the utilities and public works, and city administration. We did not have any issues. This is the critical time you want a department of emergency management. A lot of what we did this week was streamlined through this office. I’m proud of the mayor for his foresight. Our objectives were met this week and everyone was safe. That’s all you can ask for.”

Rolling blackouts by Entergy Arkansas were announced in a effort to handle the extreme load demand for electric heat in the region. Entergy transmission lines deliver the city power supply. Rose said the city, under the direction of Utilities General Manager Todd Pedersen compensated for a power loss with its own resources. City utility customers enjoyed uninterrupted service as a result.

“One night the city utilities were told they needed to shed a bit of power,” said Rose. “The city used its generator capable of producing that power we had to shed so none of our citizens ever lost power. That event lasted for a little over two hours.”

While Memphis suffered

See STORM, page A3

ROSE

McCLENDON STORM

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problems with freezing and water pressure and issued a boil order, West Memphis came through the freeze without damage to it water works.

“We did not have any issues with its water supply, no freezing” said Rose. “About the only thing we really were effected by was inconvenience. The roads got icy and snowbound. People had a travel problem but other than that our infrastructure endured well.”

Fuel pumps for city vehicles had problems. The cold rendered the iPad controller useless. The city fleet utilized pre-contracted charge accounts at gas stations to fill up emergency and street department vehicles.

City ambulances reported traction problems on the snowbound streets. Rose was unaware of any fire calls.

The snow packed roads on top of the sheets from the preceding ice storm made driving difficult especially on neighborhood streets. West Memphis had no snow plow. The Mayor told city council the street department used back hoes to clear secondary intersections around the city.

The highway department contracted with Crisp to plow and state highways which included MLK Blvd, Ingram, Missouri Street, Broadway, Seventh Street, and College Blvd as well as the Interstates and service roads running through the city. McClendon expressed gratitude for those services during the final city council meeting of the month, but constituents registered complaints according to one city council member.

“I’ve received an insurmountable amount of complaints that certain parts of the city were plowed while other parts left untouched,” said Councilwoman Melanie Hutchinson. “How was street plowing was determined. I understand Broadway and Missouri Street are state highways.”

“We weren’t prepared with proper equipment,” said Mc-Clendon. “Mr. Crisp has a contract with the state. What he was doing, he cleared connecting streets as his drivers moved form one highway to the next, East Barton, West Barton, Jackson, Seventh Street. He did it for us as a favor. We will not be able to clear secondary streets.”

“Do we not have a truck to do the work?” asked Hutchinson. “It was miss associated that we only do one end of town. My constituents want to know, but we don’t determine the streets. I am concerned that we only work on one end of the city. Are we solely dependent on Crisp?”

“The narrative of the people that one end was helped, no, the whole city was bad,” said McClendon. “We don’t have plow trucks. Our back hoes are not that effective. We were dependent on Crisp. They did us favors. Without Crisp it would have been crazier. I rode around the city today, Barton and Jackson got plowed, south 7th Street. Plowing on those highway connecting streets covered intersections. What we did with our back hoe was open some of those.

The COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Lehr Arena was postponed for the second time due to weather. The new date moved to March 5 with all appointment times remaining the same. The state health department allotted 1000 vaccines for those in 1B.

Water pipes burst in the O.I. Bollinger building. As a result West Memphis District court moved to its new courthouse next to city hall for one business day only on Monday.

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