By Pat Culverhouse

Warmer temperatures over the past couple of days have made travel a little easier on major Minden city streets, but Chief of Police Jared McIver said drivers should still be cautious on side streets.

“Our main streets are looking good but some side streets and neighborhood streets are still messy,” McIver said. “Overall, though, we’ve been very fortunate. Traffic accidents were not near what we had anticipated.”

McIver said most of the problems after freezing rain, sleet and extremely low temperatures hit the area last weekend came from stalled vehicles, vehicles running off roadways and 18-wheelers.

“I want to commend Minden citizens for not flooding the roads with vehicles during the worst of the storm,” he said. “It helped us a lot.”

After days of “all hands on deck,” McIver said the department has returned to its normal patrol shifts.

McIver said he was extremely pleased that Mayor Nick Cox, Fire Chief Brian Williams, all department heads in the city and he had developed a plan, executed that plan and stuck to it during the weather event.

“We were ready. I felt there was nothing more we could have done. We had plenty of man power, plenty of resources and assets in place and everyone knew the plan,” the Chief said.

“It takes me back to the TV show (The A Team) when Hannibal would always say, ‘I love it when a plan comes together.’ It was all hands on deck and it worked out great.”