Wichita mayor Brandon Whipple said the city has 160 employees who have been trained to deploy 60 snow plows during winter weather conditions.  He said the city has six tons of salt and sand mix, with 17,500 tons in reserve.

At his weekly news conference, the mayor said the city is better prepared for winter with a new storage facility at 3801 West 3rd Street, near I-235 and Central.  The facility now holds 10,000 tons of salt in case there are any supply issues during the winter.    He said streets are treated on a priority basis, with 1,500 lane miles of emergency routes and major roadways, with attention to routes serving hospitals, emergency facilities and schools.   The next priority is on around 300 lane miles of secondary streets.    The mayor said the city does not maintain the state and federal highways such as Kellogg, K-96, I-135 and I-235.

Aaron Henning with the Public Works and Utilities Department said the new storage facility on West 3rd was completed earlier this year and stocked over the summer.  It’s hoped that another storage facility can be added later at a city substation in northeast Wichita.    Henning said the storage facilities give the city the ability to create 35,000 tons of the salt and sand mix that is used on streets during snow and ice conditions.