With storm looming, Kansas Citians try to stay a step ahead of the ice

On weekends when ice threatens, office worker Rob Sloan slides into the all-important “got a guy” industry.

Need a guy (or gal) to melt ice? Sloan, of Independence, spreads salty stuff on sidewalks, stoops and church parking lots.

“There are a whole bunch of us under the radar,” he said while stopping Saturday at Strasser True Value Hardware in Kansas City, Kan., to hoist into his van 100 pounds of calcium chloride. It and other varieties of melting matter were the hot products at the store Saturday.

Area residents awoke Saturday to a thin glaze of ice, but most of the freezing buildup was expected to occur Sunday after overnight rains.

Sloan will be out rise and shine, dropping salt from a Scotts lawn spreader.

By day a marketing specialist for a nonprofit that delivers health insurance, he also subcontracts with a bike shop’s owners who figured out how to make money in winter: Get a guy to salt the walks of private properties.

Sloan is happy to be one.

“I’m 51 years old but still a little kid who goes out and plays in the snow,” he said. “I don’t need to do this, but I’d rather not just sit around at home.”

Major roads around Kansas City were navigable Saturday. The trouble spots were sidewalks, porches, driveways and untreated side streets.

With borderline freezing temperatures forecast through most of the weekend, rainfall beginning late Saturday was expected to ice up overnight and build into Sunday, the National Weather Service predicted.

“We’ll see that rain kicking in around midnight. By the time we wake up (Sunday) there could be a good coating of ice on everything,” said meteorologist Jared Leighton. “I wouldn’t call it call it catastrophic. But it’s likely to be a nuisance mess for sure.”

Saturday’s expected low of 29 degrees could extend until about noon Sunday, after which the question will be whether or not we hit 32 degrees, Leighton said.

The expected Sunday afternoon high is right there — 32 degrees, with rain continuing. At that temperature, ice won’t accumulate but “it’s not going to melt very fast,” said Leighton. The Kansas City Zoo announced Saturday that it would be closed Sunday.

Which brings us to the evening Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium: The thermometer is expected to inch up after 6 p.m., though roads still could be slick into the night. For Monday, the weather service forecasts high temperatures into the 50s.

Back at Strasser hardware, customer Jane Wetzell of Westwood said she’ll be at the game. She was concerned about its start being changed from early afternoon to 7:20 p.m — more time for fans to imbibe.

“And then everyone’s driving home in the dark” on potentially icy streets, she said.

Wetzell ought to be safe once she pulls into her driveway: She bought rock salt.

Basic rock salt, store manager Lucas Orozco suggested.

It will do in temperatures around 30 degrees or just below. More exotic treatments can run twice as much in price, but they’re more useful in colder conditions.

And be careful spreading anything on pavement less than a year old. As with everything, Orozco advises: “Read the packaging.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 4:07 PM with the headline "With storm looming, Kansas Citians try to stay a step ahead of the ice."