Columbus Street Department

About Columbus Street Department

The Loup Power District's canal cuts straight through Columbus on its way to the hydro plant downstream, and on the coldest mornings a low mist rises off the moving water while the streets on either side have already gone stiff with ice. The Columbus Street Department runs its plows out from the yard before that mist burns off, clearing 23rd Street and the canal crossings first, since ice forms fastest wherever open water sits close to the cold air. From there the routes fan out through the grid toward the rail yard and the processing plants on the edge of town, then into the neighborhoods where school buses need bare pavement by seven. Platte County storms often bring wet, heavy snow up where the Loup runs into the Platte, snow that packs down hard under a tire before a plow ever reaches it, so the plow runs with a load of sand and salt already behind the blade. It's a long loop repeated morning after morning until every street in Columbus has been scraped down at least once.