For the streets departments in Chippewa Falls and Eau Claire, Monday is the calm before the storm.

“We're going over our equipment. We've been preparing it since September or October,” says Eau Claire Street Manager Mike Barnhardt.

Barnhardt says his crew has extra areas to plow this year.

“The City of Eau Claire took over the maintenance of Hastings Way. So, now the city is responsible for sanding, salting and plowing Hastings Way basically from Melby Street to Clairemont," he says.

Up in Chippewa Glen Zwiefelhofer says while the city is planning for plow crew cutbacks, they'll be fully-staffed this week.

"The cutbacks won't affect us for this snowstorm. The cutbacks will start after the first of January," he says.

But he says the trainees from other city departments will use this week as a tutorial.

"They will do a little bit of training with us this week to get a feel for what it's like when they take over after the first of the year,” says Zwiefelhofer.

Both cities say they're asking for everyone's patience, as they try to get miles of streets plowed this week.

"It could take awhile to get into the residential (areas). People just have to be careful,” says Barnhardt.

Both Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls say they've got enough salt to cover all of their routes.

But, the streets manager in Black River Falls says his city will be using salt sparingly, because the prices are so expensive, and he doesn't want their supply to run out early.

Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls would like to remind people the plows will take care of main streets and emergency routes first, before heading to the side streets. So don't be alarmed, if your street isn't done right away.