Date: Fri 12-Jan-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

weather-snow-highway-winter

Full Text:

with cut: What A Winter! Snow Behind Us, Snow Ahead

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Having barely dug its way out from last weekend's snowstorm, Newtown braced

for another possible assault this weekend.

But Greg Cantwell, meteorologist at the Techni-Weather Center in Danbury, said

that this weekend's storm will be nothing like the last. "It will just be a

good, old-fashioned snowstorm," he predicted.

For a few days this week, the town congratulated itself for getting through

the Blizzard of 1996 which dumped 22 inches of snow in the Newtown area.

"The Public Works Department and highway crews did a great job," First

Selectman Bob Cascella said on Tuesday. "The roads were always passable. We

actually got compliments this morning - people called my office to say what a

great job the highway crew did clearing the roads."

There were problems, however, caused by homeowners and private plowers who

pushed snow into the roadways and left it there. This is dangerous and

illegal, Mr Cascella said, warning that violators could be subject to

prosecution.

So far this winter almost 60 inches of snow has fallen in the greater Danbury

area.

"We're well on our way to breaking the record set in 1947-48 when 80.8 inches

fell," said Bill Jacquemin of Techni-Weather. "The norm is 40 to 45 inches. I

can't see how we'll get through January and February, never mind March,

without breaking the record."

"We were only eight days into January when this storm broke the monthly

record," he added. "We've had 30.1 inches of snow so far in January, which

broke the record of 29.4 inches set in 1987."

The average temperatures this time of year are 37 during the day and 23 at

night. But daytime temperatures won't rise much beyond the mid-20's with

nights dipping into the single digits, Mr Jacquemin said.

Less than three weeks into winter, Newtown already has exhausted the $80,000

budgeted for overtime in its winter maintenance accounts. After cancelling

Monday night's meeting because of the storm, the Board of Selectman met

Thursday morning, January 11, to recommend a transfer of $50,000 from

contingency into the overtime account.

A Ghost Town

Newtown looked like a snowy ghost town on Monday. Businesses that are always

open, such as the General Store and the Newtown Convenience Store, were

closed. Restaurants were closed, too, except for the Blue Colony Diner. Even

the deli counter at the Grand Union was closed, prompting some customers to

buy bread, packaged meat and cheese, and return to their offices to make

sandwiches.

Newtown Hardware Store opened, sold mostly firewood, then closed at noon when

customers stopped trickling in. By mid-afternoon, the Grand Union closed.

The town offices were open, but with reduced staff because many employees were

unable to get to work.

Only two of the town's 21 mail routes were delivered. These were on the main

roads, where three-fourths of the businesses were closed anyway, according to

Postmaster Dick McGuire. "Many of the secondary roads weren't passable at the

time that we would have been starting the routes," he said.

The scene was a remarkable contrast to Sunday morning, when it appeared that

nearly everyone in town crowded into the Grand Union and Super Stop & Shop to

lay in grocery supplies before the storm hit. In both stores, lines of

customers stretched from the registers halfway through the stores. Parking

spots and shopping carts were nearly impossible to find.

"It was crazy - we were directing traffic inside the store," said Jessie

Makles, manager at Grand Union. "People think grocery stores really make out

on days like that but what really happens is that two and one-half days worth

of shopping takes place in four hours, and we're dead after that."

The shopping frenzy for this storm was remarkable but it didn't begin to match

the one that happened before Hurricane Gloria in 1985, he said.

"That was the worst in the 25 years I've been in the supermarket business," Mr

Makless said. "We had as many customers in the store at 3 am as we did during

the day and the shelves were wiped clean of stock."

By Wednesday the town had returned to almost normal, except for the mail

delivery.

"I took a drive around town today," Mr McGuire said Wednesday afternoon, "and

you still can't even see 15 to 25 percent of the mailboxes. There's still six

feet of snow in front of many of the boxes, preventing the drivers from

getting close enough to deliver the mail."

Costs of the Storm

This week's storm, which began at 12:30 pm on Sunday and ended at 12:30 am on

Tuesday, cost the town $29,921, of which $22,885 was for 905 hours of

overtime. The rest was for 440 yards of sand and 74 tons of salt.

After the storm, the Public Works Department calculated that highway crews

have spread 5,157 yards of sand and 985« tons of salt and accumulated 3,435

overtime hours, for a total of $173,562 so far this year. The town budgeted

$350,000 for winter maintenance, but of this, only $230,000 is actually for

salt, sand and overtime. The remainder is for cleaning catch basins, street

sweeping and replacing blades, chains and other equipment.

"We're still in pretty good shape as far as salt and sand go and probably

won't be asking for any transfer of funds for that until the end of the

month," said Public Works Director Fred Hurley. "But we've depleted the

overtime account."

Highway crews started at 4 am on Wednesday, about three hours earlier than

usual, to sand the roads before the school bus routes began, adding a little

more to the costs to date, he said.

"Each of the major storms that we've experienced this year started at night or

on weekends," Mr Hurley said. "That's something you just can't predict. Nor

can we really predict what the rest of the winter will be like - we could have

three weeks without snow. Although, if I had to guess, I'd bet that this will

be a bad one."

Last year the town spent just about exactly the $305,000 budgeted for winter

maintenance. The previous year, however, the town budgeted $271,000 but spent

$489,644. So, for this year, the Legislative Council averaged the amount that

the town spent during the past five years and added a little extra.