BEATRICE – Beatrice travelers were waking up Tuesday seeing those big ridges of snow gone from streets and U.S. Highway 136 in the central business district.


Beatrice City Street personnel started removing them late Monday night, working through the early morning hours Tuesday. The piles of snow are from a winter storm that blew through the area over the weekend.


Using a huge snowblower, graders and several dump trucks, the snow was being blown into the truck beds and hauled to a storage area near the Big Blue River in assembly-line fashion. The snow is piled there with the use of a loader, at a city-owned site along the Big Blue River just west of the downtown area.


Mayor Bob Morgan at Monday night’s council session praised the work of the city’s street crews responding to the storm.


"I've lived in several other communities, and I think again.....thank Jason Moore (Street Superintendent) and all the people that sacrificed their Sunday, and their time at eleven p.m. tonight...to really do a nice job on our streets. I just can't thank them enough because it seems like something little, but it's important."


Because of tight quarters between buildings downtown, snow removal crews ridge the plowed snow down the center of roadways….then remove it later for hauling to the site at 1st and Ella.