Rockville Centre weathers the storm

Rockville Centre made it through the first blizzard of 2015, thanks in part to Mother Nature.

The storm, which forecasters said could drop between two and three feet of snow on the village, wound up tracking farther east than the National Weather Service initially predicted, so Nassau County was not hit as hard. Rockville Centre had an estimated 10 inches of snow.

The village’s Electric Department reported no outages during the storm. There were no injuries or car accidents, thanks in part to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s order to close all roads in the counties affected by the storm from 11 p.m. Monday through 7:30 a.m. Tuesday.

Village offices were closed on Tuesday, and only essential personnel were at Village Hall. The Recreation Center and the Sandel Senior Center were also closed, and the village suspended garbage pickup for the day.

As of press time Tuesday, the village’s Department of Public Works was still working to clear the village’s 53 miles of roadways and 30 parking fields.

“I would like to thank our village administrator, Keith Spadaro, for coordinating the snow emergency throughout the village, as well as our superintendent of public works, Harry Weed, for his tireless efforts to ensure the safety of roadways,” Mayor Francis X. Murray said. “I am extremely proud of the men and women that tirelessly worked throughout the night and day to prepare for the storm and work during and after the event. I would also like to thank our volunteer Fire Department, who stayed on call for over 16 hours to answer the needs of our residents, as well as our Police Department. We are fortunate that this was primarily a snow event and the predicted sustained winds never materialized. Just the same, we were prepared and responded quickly. I would also like to thank our residents and store owners for complying with the snow emergency. It made our cleanup effort go smoothly.”