FARGO (KFGO-AM) - The big snow melting machine leased by the City of Fargo this winter for the pricey sum of $35,000 a month may not be big enough.
The diesel powered melter has been used for the first time in the past few days, gobbling up truckload's of snow and pumping out gallons of water into a retention pond at a snow dump site in south Fargo on land owned by Cass County.
Public Works Supervisor Lee Anderson said little snow up until now has not given the equipment the work-out that had been expected and what they've seen so far indicates it may not work clearing out area's where it's hard to pile snow. He said "everything's up in the air but expectations of towing it around and doing cul-de-sac's appealed to us early for this size machine, but I don't that's going to work. I think we're going to have to go bigger." One of the reasons for using the melter is to reduce the amount of land used to pile up the snow.
Bigger could mean a stationary melter at a dump site, the type used by many major airports. Anderson said the city will lose one of its snow disposal sites downtown near the Red River once the flood wall is completed. The cost of purchasing additional land for another site will be very expensive.
The final decision on what to do next will be up to the city commission.