I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it's going to snow and soon! Well, relatively soon. But it won't be long before we need to find our snow shovels and service the snow blower. In a typical winter, there are 7 to 10 good snowstorms. Each one takes a couple of days to fully "mop up." That's about 20 snow days to weather. As renowned local climatologist Cliff Harris will tell us, we are in a "La Nina" dominated weather pattern (below-to-normal temperatures/above-to-normal precipitation). With large pattern mood and weather swings, we as citizens should be prepared for anything to happen on any given day.

Our first snowstorm will likely occur sometime early this month. It will be named Aa' Berry. This year's storm names - alphabetically themed after names of berries - were created by Erika Skindlov, first-place winner from Ms. Sue Degraw's fourth grade class at Bryan Elementary. Why do we name storms In order to track, record, and critique our performance, we give each storm a name. It also helps us communicate a storm's status to the media and on the city's webpage. Plus it's fun and it gives kids something to think about.

We are already planning and preparing for winter. Over 250 lane miles of streets receive nearly 70 inches of snowfall annually. Last year's total snowfall was 121 inches. With resources that the City Council has dedicated to street maintenance and some process improvements, the average time for us to complete a citywide plowing has been reduced to 37 hours, a 30 percent decrease from a decade ago. A more important statistic is maintaining a low number of accidents involving city snowplows. We are blessed to have a very talented group of equipment operators working for the city, who, as a team, have dramatically reduced the number of snow plowing complaints while maintaining a remarkable safety record.

In 2004, the Association of Idaho Cities recognized Coeur d'Alene with a City Achievement Award for its unique and popular "Snow Gate Program."

Where practical, neighborhood plowing is done with front-end loaders equipped with "snow gate" plows. These state-of-the-art snow machines enable us to reduce the amount of snow you may find in your driveway after we pass by. Despite significant improvements, we still get a few complaints. Our No. 1 snow removal complaint concerns snow berms in driveways. Despite our use of the snow gates, there are times when plows still leave snow berms behind.

You can help us do a better job - after a major snowstorm, please try not to park on the street until after we finish. Listen to KVNI 1080 AM or call us at 769-2233 to see if we are plowing.

While snow removal is improving in the city, it is not realistic to expect all snow problems to go away. I promise you we will do the best job possible. Let's enjoy the rest of fall, and then start looking for our snow shovels.

Tim Martin is street superintendent for the city of Coeur d'Alene.