Five Towners awake to snow day

Students in the Five Towns received a snow day as they looked outside their windows to seven to eight inches in Lawrence and anywhere from six to 12 inches in Cedarhurst, according to both village mayors.

Lawrence Mayor Martin Oliner declared a snow emergency at 8 p.m. on Tuesday which will be in effect until midnight tonight. He also said the village began their snow removal at 1 a.m. and that the streets are currently clean and operable. “We were prepared and watched the storm throughout,” Oliner said. “The people in the village were cooperative and the snow removal process went outstanding.”

In Cedarhurst, Mayor Andrew Parise said the village got a head start on the snow removal process by sanding and salting the streets before the storm hit. Village hall closed yesterday so residents could be called to move their cars off the street and into driveways to make the snow removal process more effective. “It was so much easier this time,” Parise said about this snow storm compared to the Dec. 26 blizzard. “We had half the amount of snow and since there were very few cars on the streets, it made it easier to plow.”

Parise said the village had nine snowplows, three sanders and a sidewalk crew that removed snow from parking meters and parks. All 80 village streets have been plowed and are currently in great shape, he said.

Oliner said Lawrence had 15 total pieces of equipment out to clear the snow from village streets and sidewalks; up to 13 plows and two or three snow blowers. He said each storm helps the village learn and improve their snow removal process. “We’re always improving and learning,” he said. “And people are responding better to the snow emergencies each time.”

Marty Weinberg, a Lawrence resident, said he only got three or four inches. “I spoke with my friend in Port Jefferson and he said they got about 18 inches of snow,” Weinberg said. “So we didn’t get hit as bad as other areas.”

Weinberg, who lives in an apartment complex, said the complex has plows and the parking lot his car is parked in was plowed this morning. “I haven’t gone out yet,” he said. “But I’ll be going out this afternoon since the main roads should be fine.”

The snow storm closed locals schools including Lawrence and Hewlett-Woodmere public schools and private schools such as Hebrew Academny of the Five Towns and Rockaway, Lawrence-Woodmere Academy and Hebrew Academy of Long Beach.