{"id":444026,"date":"2026-09-22T12:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444026\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:52:10","slug":"el-paso-county-crews-to-participate-in-annual-snow-school-training-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/444026\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso County crews to participate in annual snow school training today"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) &#8212; Winter weather that brings snow and ice doesn&#8217;t just come in the winter; we&#8217;ve seen it come in mid-fall and in early spring.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, El Paso County public works crews must prepare for snow removal and related tasks ahead of time, in good weather &#8212; whether crews are new or experienced.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-054223.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1761733\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That&#8217;s the purpose of the annual &#8220;snow school&#8221; training event.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It helps crews learn and refresh their skills, including how to plow snow properly, put snow chains on their tires, and other duties.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-055424.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1761738\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You may not realize how large the county is: Hundreds, if not thousands, of roads, many of them unpaved, and as far as 40 miles from the Colorado Springs city limits.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-054517.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1761734\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It takes an appropriately large staff to cover that much territory.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Supervisors say that a full call-out for a winter storm event is 140 people, and last season, the county was close to being fully staffed, with 135 drivers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-054627.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1761735\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The height of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced those numbers significantly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In response, the county eliminated some job requirements, such as having a high school diploma, and raised pay and benefits to attract new employees and retain existing workers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The county has also found success in outreach programs that have continued since the pandemic.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Screenshot-2026-09-22-055030.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1761737\" style=\"width:840px;height:auto\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Supervisors occasionally host students at the transportation complex and make presentations at schools, exposing students to a possible career in public works.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The county will allow media to watch the training between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. today; KRDO 13&#8217;s The Road Warrior will have a full report at noon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) &#8212; Winter weather that brings snow and ice doesn&#8217;t just come in the winter;&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444027,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139],"class_list":["post-444026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}