Staying open after a foot of snow

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Nate Ramsey oversees the operations at all 19 Metroparks, almost 200 miles of trails in the county. That includes making sure they’re cleared after a snowstorm. Even one that drops a foot of snow.

“As soon as we started getting inklings from you on the weather forecast that we had a storm headed this way, we made sure all of our equipment was ready and simple things like making sure things were fueled up,” says Ramsey.

From access roads to your biking and running trails. Ramsey says it’s a huge task, but an easy one with a dedicated group of people.

“I was in every park yesterday, and every single crew that was out there, including our rangers, all of our maintenance staffs, we had some of our horticulture staff out,” Ramsey explains.

The priority: Making sure the parks can be open and accessible. “And that’s every day of the year,” he says. “Some days it’s a little bit more challenging.”

Like when we get a foot of snow. But even that won’t stop cleanup crews. “We shut down if there’s a Level 3. That doesn’t mean we still don’t have our essential staff here working to get the parks ready, so when the Level 3 is lifted, we can open the gates and have everybody come back in.”

Lucas County didn’t go to a Level 3 Snow Emergency this time around, so the parks stayed open, and the fleet stayed moving.

“Yesterday, I probably saw at least 25 different modes of transportation, from utility vehicles to our bigger plow trucks. And then if you count the shovel I was using, 26.”

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