Date: Fri 22-Dec-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-snow-winter-postal

Full Text:

with cut: This Fall Produced More Snow Than Last Winter

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

"Shop early, dearie - soon you will be winter weary. For though the

temperature's above average, so's the snow, and the winds are savage. Pray we

now, both dudes and hicks, for a peaceful '96 . " (The Old Farmer's Almanac,

1996) .

In case you hadn't noticed, Friday, December 22, was the first day of winter.

Although winter has finally, officially, arrived, the fall of 1995 will be

remembered as one in which more snow fell than during the entire previous

winter.

Jeff Thomas, meteorologist at the Techni-Weather Center located near Exit 8 of

I-84 in Danbury, said 18.7 inches of snow fell last winter; that total was

surpassed this month by late Tuesday night. Ten to 13 inches of snow fell in

the Danbury area in this latest storm, bringing the total for November and

December to more than 24 inches, he said.

Newtown's public works employees worked more than 40 hours straight to keep up

with the storm and postal drivers were still delivering mail after dark.

"We have about 25 (employees) in the road crew, which is one per piece of

equipment," said Public Works Director Fred Hurley. We don't put two (persons)

in a truck like the state does and we don't have shifts, like the state, so

there aren't additional people that we can call in."

The risk in a storm that lasts for days is that drivers can get exhausted and

have accidents, he said. In this storm, one truck slid off a road, but no one

was hurt, and there was no damage.

Most of the plowing and sanding was completed between 2 and 3 am Thursday and

road crews finally were able to head home for some well-earned sleep.

"There were no major problems," said Paul Tani, one of a handful of staff left

at the highway garage at 8 am Thursday. "We got that one truck back on the

road, and there weren't any other problems."

Mr Tani said that about 100 truckloads of sand/salt mix were spread on the 260

miles of roads that are plowed by the town. Each truck holds about six or

seven yards of material, he said.

Two years ago, the town budgeted $271,000 for winter maintenance but wound up

spending $489,644. So last year the town budgeted more, $305,000, and spent

almost all of it ($302,692), because even though there was little snow, there

were plenty of icy roads that required sanding, salting and overtime.

So for this year, the town increased the winter maintenance budget to

$350,000.

"We're in reasonably good shape as far as materials like salt and sand go," Mr

Hurley said. "The question is always overtime. Will the storms hit during the

regular workday or will the crews be out at night and on weekends?"

Each overtime hour costs between $700 and $800 if all of the highway workers

are on duty, Mr Hurley said on Wednesday afternoon.

"We spent between $11,000 and $12,000 Tuesday night, and if we spend the same

amount tonight (Wednesday night), with what we already spent in last week's

storm, we're very quickly approaching the $35,000 to $40,000 range which is

approaching the midpoint of the budget," he said.

But there are so many variables when it comes to the weather that it is

impossible to know or predict how a winter will go and what the town will end

up spending, he said. So last year the town used a five-year average of winter

maintenance needs to come up with an amount to put into the budget.

"In an ice storm, we might have to continually sand," Mr Hurley said. "In this

week's storm we did our major clearing of the roads early, then sanded again

for traction, then went out again as the snow continued to fall."

The Mail Goes

Through... Slowly

At the Newtown Post Office, Postmaster Dick McGuire said the storms have

affected airports across the country and slowed trucks, creating built-in

delays.

"This has been one of our toughest years already," he said. "I've been here

for 23 years and normally two weeks before Christmas the bulk of the mail is

going out, and this week most is coming in. But this year it is both. People

are shopping and mailing later and, with the storms across the country, there

isn't any guarantee it can get delivered. A plane going into Salt Lake City

might wind up being diverted to Boulder, Colo."

Mr McGuire said local postal workers are having a very difficult time reaching

customer's mailboxes and delivering packages to homes because of unplowed

driveways and steps. Mailboxes must be shoveled out, he said, to keep the

delivery trucks from getting stuck.

So many packages couldn't be left because of the snow and freezing conditions,

that the post office package pickup will remain open until 8 pm on Thursday

and Friday and until 7 pm on Saturday for customer convenience. Express mail

will be delivered on Sunday.

"People often just don't understand how difficult it is for our drivers," he

said. "I had one person call to complain about undelivered mail so I went out

to investigate and my vehicle got stuck there."

The Old Farmer's Almanac predicts that there will be more precipitation, snow

and rain, in New England this winter but temperatures are expected to be three

to four degrees above normal. So far the almanac is half right. Temperatures,

however, are averaging four to five degrees below normal this year. Daytime

temperatures are expected to be about 30 to 35 degrees through Christmas Day

with occasional light flurries.