Local road crews prepare for snow

As their counterparts in the River Valley took a long-awaited rest, Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department crews fired up their trucks in Northwest Arkansas on Friday afternoon.

"This is the first call-out for our crews up there," said Joe Shipman, a spokesman for the department. "Our southern crews aren't out, because it's rain down in the Fort Smith area, but our Lincoln crews are working on the slush and snow along (Arkansas) 59 and (U.S.) 62."

Washington County road crews were attaching plows and filling trucks with sand and chat at 4 p.m., but hadn't sent any rigs out yet, according to road department managers.

Benton and Washington counties have been hit by a narrow band of light to moderate snow that will end shortly, said National Weather Service meteorologist Pete Snyder.

Snyder said snow already had stopped in the very western portions of Benton County at about 4 p.m. Friday. He said there was not any expectations of more snow later in the evening or Saturday morning.

Most of the snow will evaporate on roads before temperatures start to drop in the evening, Snyder said.

“There could be some black ice in rural areas that do not get much sun or on elevated surfaces,” Snyder said.

Keith Foster, spokesman for the Rogers Police Department, reported a few minor accidents with no injuries after snow began to fall in earnest about 2:30 p.m.

In Fayetteville, police didn't expect heavy accumulation, and didn't pull patrol cars off duty to install studded tires.

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