Road crews and public works departments in Rockland and Camden are prepared for heavy snowfall late Friday into Saturday.

On Thursday, Feb. 7, Rockland Public Works Director Greg Blackwell said his crew of 15 is "ready to roll." The department's salt shed is chock full of approximately 100 tons of salt. They also have about 4,000 yards of sand, which he said typically lasts for an entire winter.

Road crews in Rockland will begin before snowfall gets too heavy. As the first snowflakes flutter to the streets, they will be out with their trucks laying a pre-treatment of a salt/magnesium chloride brine mixture Blackwell calls a "bond breaker," to keep ice from building up. The magnesium chloride reduces "bounce" and makes the salt adhere better to the road. He said they also want to get sand down early on areas that are usually slippery and on hills.

Blackwell and Camden Public Works Director Rick Seibel both know what is store for their areas and are prepared to move a lot of snow. "Snow pushers" will clear sidewalks as plow trucks rumble by. Loaders will load mountains of the white stuff into trucks to be hauled off and dumped into the ocean. It's nothing they haven't seen before.

But crews will have to work around parked cars and increased weekend traffic. Seibel and his crew of 10 will use all eight plow trucks and two wheel loaders to clear sidewalks and main arteries of town during the brunt of the storm, which is expected to start Friday afternoon and last until late Saturday morning.

Public Works employees could be on the clock for up to 30 hours, Seibel said. During the storm they will take sporadic breaks, he said, "but when the snow really comes down, they pretty much stay on it."

Directors are also prepared in case someone gets sick or a piece of equipment breaks down. They may call on other departments for any additional help, and some staff members are trained mechanics.

"It's not anything we couldn't handle," Seibel predicts, but he also knows there will be increased traffic downtown for the 23rd annual toboggan races at the Camden Snow Bowl. Two of his department's wheel loaders will be at the ski hill to clear snow from the parking lot and ball field there, probably starting around 3 a.m. Saturday. This will take equipment and staff away from downtown Camden, but Seibel added, "hopefully it won't be snowing too hard."

Despite a parking ban during such storms, people leave their cars parked along busy roads. Public safety officials encourage motorists to park in designated parking lots off main streets as snowfall picks up during the day. Cars parked on Main Street and Elm Street (Route 1), Camden, after 1 a.m. will be towed.

In Rockland, there is a city-wide parking ban between 2 and 6 a.m. during the winter months. Signs should indicate where parking is prohibited during the storm.