5th CES snow fighters Published March 28, 2013 By Senior Airman Jessica Haas Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- With winter looking like it's far from over, Team Minot residents can expect one thing - more snow. And of course, with more snow, bad roads, increased travel time and headaches are inevitable. While snow may pose more than a few problems for commuters, drivers can rely on the 5th Civil Engineer Squadron's snow patrol team to work their hardest for those using the roads on base. While the snow removal team does their best to ensure the roads are cleared in a timely manner, Mother Nature doesn't always cooperate. The 5th CES' Snow Removal Section runs a 24/7 hour operation from the time of the first snowfall until the last one is anticipated. "Historically we scale the shifts back around the second week in April," said Master Sgt. Anthony Aquilano, 5th CES Heavy Repair Section chief. "Any snowfall takes approximately three to four days to completely clean up - but this is very dependent on the amount of snow we get. If we get hit with a heavy one, then it can take up to a week to go through all of the priorities. This year has been a busy one though and it seems as if it has been constant this year." So what can residents do to help out and how exactly do they determine what gets plowed first? "People need to try to maintain a safe distance as we plow the streets and parking lots," continued Aquilano. "We currently have not had any incidents this year, but we've had several close calls. The snow removal priorities are reviewed and approved by the base commander annually. We use a priority approved map as guidance - of course the runway, primary taxiways, missile site requests and emergency roads are all priority one. Once priority ones have been completed we move onto the priority two phase of snow removal." The snow removal team says their lack of experienced manpower has been one of the biggest challenges this season. The snow removal team is usually augmented with 35 over-hire civilians for the winter; this year they received none at the beginning of winter. "Halfway through the winter we were approved for civilian over-hires but were only able to hire nine emergency hires late in the season," said Aquilano. "To make up for lack of experienced civilian workers, we had to augment our manning with other Airmen from within the civil engineer operations flight." Currently, the snow removal team is made up of HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning), electricians, power professionals, and utilities and structures craftsmen. Aquilano said these Airmen had a very steep learning curve when they came on board last fall and have been excelling at the difficult task they were asked to do. Aquilano said he understands that waiting for snow removal can be frustrating, but to please have patience. "Understand that we cannot plow the entire base in one day," said Aquilano. "Have patience; we will get to your area. If you have a request please use Snow Control to make the request by calling 723-7669. Also understand that as we conduct our business we will need to plow snow across driveways and other roadways."