Even after the city of Ames clears roadways of snow and ice all winter long, the city must deal with the damage to paved streets from the inclement weather in the spring. 

Public Works for the city of Ames goes to the City Council once a year with a capital improvements plan to improve the worst of the worst streets.

‘We come back with proposed street locations for reconstruction within our budget,” said Rudy Koester, civil engineer for the city of Ames.

In order to prepare this plan, city employees “review the historical data on the street, do visual inspection of the street, pull cores and discuss with our maintenance crews about what are they seeing out there for issues,” Koester said.

This system ensures the infrastructure in Ames can remain updated, however sometimes sidewalks can be even worse than the roads. 

 “After the last big snow, it was pretty icy and pretty snowy, especially coming into our apartment,” said Kevin Hughes, junior in athletic training and Campustown resident.

Hughes also said the snow and ice was still bad for a week after the storm and his roommate even fell on the stairs leading to their apartment.

Once it has snowed, tenants and owners have 10 daylight hours to remove snow from their sidewalks with a four-foot-wide clearing. 

Tenants should read their lease to see whose job it is to clear the sidewalk. If someone reports a sidewalk, the owner has 24 hours to clear it.

After 24 hours with uncleared sidewalk, city employees will remove the snow from the sidewalk and charge the owner anywhere from $90 to $150 for the service. 

However, students have an opportunity to improve sidewalk conditions with the Government of Student Body safety walk. 

On the safety walk, which was last held in the fall of 2014, students walked around Campustown to try and find potentially hazardous areas.

“I think it’s a great idea because they also look for possible danger spots,” Betcher said. 

Ames residents are encouraged to report problem spots and potholes on roads to the city. 

When snow levels reach two inches or more, Ames residents parked on main roads should plan on moving their cars to avoid getting ticketed or towed.

When a snow ordinance is put into effect, the announcement will be made via the city of Ames website and on Des Moines TV channels 5, 8 and 13, as well as the local channel 12.

“The city of Ames staff has been acculturated with putting Ames citizens as a high priority,” said Councilwoman Gloria Betcher.

City officials try to have roads cleared within 16 hours of the storm, but more specifically at target times of 7 a.m. or 5 p.m., depending on the time of the storm.

The order of snow cleared includes main roads — such as Lincoln Way, Duff Avenue and Grand Avenue — residential streets, parking lots, sidewalks, some bike paths and finally, alleyways.

Vehicles not located on a snow route should still be moved within 48 hours of when the snow ordinance was put into effect.