Mower County’s first measurable snowfall this season left about 3 inches of snow and some Mower County residents unhappy with slick, snow-packed roads.

The Mower County board talked Tuesday about how it directs Mower County Public Works to plow and clear roads after Adams resident Cynthia Heimer criticized the county’s response to last Friday and Saturday’s snow.

Heimer and her husband were returning from visiting their son in Wisconsin, where she said the roads were clear despite there being more snow. She told the board the only bad road she and her husband drove on was County Road 7, which prompted her to call Commissioner Polly Glynn.

Heimer, a former public health nurse, told the board that she remembers many years of having to deal with slick and icy roads, and she says she’s spoke up to the county before.

“This has been going on for 40 years,” she said. “You need to come up with something different.”

Though she’s now retired, she said she’s speaking up for fear of young people who are still working and need to get to their jobs at places like Mayo Clinic, often early in the morning before roads are cleared.

Board members and county officials essentially said comparing county roads and state roads is a bit like comparing apples to oranges. The Minnesota Department of Transportation, for example, has a bare road policy that has them devoting much time and money to keeping high-traffic roads like Interstate 90 cleared during storms, County Coordinator Craig Oscarson explained.

In order to follow model closer to MnDOT, Mower County would need add staff and money to the budget.

“That would cost too much money,” Commissioner Jerry Reinartz said of the MnDOT model. “People would never go along with that.”

County staff cautioned that it wasn’t just Mower that saw poor road conditions over the weekend. County Attorney Kirsten Nelsen noted she saw several cars in the ditch while traveling through Steele County, and County Coordinator Craig Oscarson traveled through Mower and Freeborn counties on Saturday after the snowstorm and noted Freeborn was no better or worse than Mower.

Commissioner Tim Gabrielson argued the highway department did its due diligence during the storm, but he said rain and ice early in last weekend’s storms made for slick conditions.

But Heimer urged changes and said the board doesn’t need to change the budget to make improvements, as she suggested the county work toward creative methods of responding to snow events.

“You guys need to not make excuses for this,” she said. “Come up with some other creative things.”

Heimer questioned the county’s policy that says that county plows will not be dispatched prior to the 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. time frame in most circumstances; however, the next line in the policy sates the county engineer and designated staff can dispatch plows from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. at their discretion, which they often do.

The bigger issue, county officials say, is staff time and budget limitations. Due to safety concerns, the board doesn’t allow highway staff to work more than a 12-hour shift in a 24-hour period. With that, the county will sometimes wait to send plows out to ensure they’re not pulling plows at a time when the snow would just pile back up or drift during the peak of a storm.

Public Works Director Mike Hanson said it’s not always an exact science, and the department does the best it can with its resources, noting trucks were out Saturday plowing and sanding on Saturday. The county has about 400 miles of roads.

But Heimer reiterated the need for the county to get creative in its response to snow events.

“People are going to get hurt,” she said.

She came up with some ideas for such creative responses, on of them being deicers put on the road ahead of storms, which MnDOT uses on bridge decks.

However, Hanson said that likely wouldn’t be feasible for the county because of the added cost and because it doesn’t always work the way you’d expect.

Hanson said he and his department would be willing to make changes or try new things if directed by the board.

Glynn said she didn’t necessarily think a policy change was needed, but she said it was a good topic for the board to discuss because it’s a matter of safety for the drivers.