A lack of snow but not a lack of work

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — As January nears its midway point, it’s getting harder to find snow in Sioux Falls.

In the heart of winter, it’s been weeks since the crew at Arctic Winter Management has moved snow.

“It’s been very slow. We were off to a great start in November or so we thought. And it’s kind of slowed down now,” Arctic Winter Management owner Dan Pyle said.

Pyle is keeping his employees mildly busy with odd jobs around the shop, including some tied to his lawn & landscaping business.

“All summer long, we’re busy outside working and it takes some negligence on the shop, of course. So now it’s a good time of year to to take a week and just just do a good spring cleaning,” Pyle said.

But the early season snow also took its toll.

“There’s wiring issues, strobe lights to work on, cutting edges to put on,” Pyle said.

“Just figuring stuff out, mid-season, that’s gone bad. We’ll bring it up to date so we’re ready for the next snowfall,” part-time employee Dan Ruesch said.

Ruesch is a retired IT specialist with the Air National Guard. He started as an operator three years ago and now works electronics.

“Doing all the wiring, installing a lot of our accessory equipment, wireless equipment, camera, safety wire, anything that does with safety, additional lighting and troubleshooting all the stuff that goes bad from previous installs on a lot of our use trucks,” Ruesch said.

One of the jobs that keeps the team busy is making salt brine. They take a 2,000 pound bag of salt, mix it with water, and create up to 100,000 gallons of salt brine for their use and to sell.

“Even as a pre-treat, like last week we did, there was a chance of weather, a freezing mix, and we didn’t get it, but we still went out and pretreated some lots,” Pyle said.

Busy work as they keep an eye on the sky for the next big storm.

“We can’t make it snow and so we just keep doing what we do,” Pyle said.

Pyle has 130 employees on call during a snow event, but only five people working full-time in the shop.

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