What storm?

The citizens of Baldwin appeared to be brushing off last night’s storm pretty effortlessly this morning despite accumulations of close to 10 inches in some areas as well as residual build up at street corners and bordering parking lots.

The National Weather Service, which called last night’s snow accumulations “erratic,” said Baldwin received about 6 inches of snow overall, and by 8:00 a.m. the major roads downtown had been plowed.

John Bruno, an independent contractor with Hazel Landscaping, was touching up a lot on Grand Avenue and compared last night’s plow duty to that which followed the storm on Dec. 26th. “This is much easier than the storm after Christmas,” said Bruno, who told the Herald he’d been working since midnight and had plowed four other parking lots. “The last storm had heavier snow and a lot more of it.”

Up the avenue from the lot Bruno had cleared, Bob Millione, a letter carrier with the United States Postal Service, was shoveling out his mail truck. “This is nothing,” Millione said, heaving a heaping shovelful of snow from under his truck’s tires. “I couldn’t even get here during the last storm. I think only five people made it in that day. My street wasn’t plowed until 10:30 p.m. the day of the first storm. This time I saw one plow at 3 a.m. and then another one at 7.”

The post office was, in fact, bustling as Millione spoke and shoveled. Four or five other letter carriers were at various stages of extricating their vehicles and two large postal trucks arrived while the interview was being conducted.

Although much of Baldwin’s daily business was proceeding as usual, the storm did not pass without effect. The Baldwin Public Library was closed and a message on their main phone line said, “The library is closed Wednesday, January 12th, due to the inclement weather.”

The Baldwin School District also elected to shut its doors in the wake of the storm. A message appearing on its website, www3.baldwinschools.org, on the morning of Jan. 12 read, “Due to inclement weather all schools will be closed 1/12/2011.” A decision had yet to made regarding a Board of Education meeting scheduled for this evening.