The storm in Rockville Centre that kept on giving

After what was described as a “significant winter snowstorm” by Village Administrator Frank Quigley last week, the Rockville Centre Department of Public Works was left with the task of removing snow from local streets as quickly and as efficiently as possible.

But workers encountered some obstacles that prevented a smooth cleanup around the village, and were still clearing snow late last week after getting off to a slow start during and immediately after the storm.

“I wasn’t completely satisfied,” Quigley said of the snow-removal process. He said that the village experienced technical problems with payloaders and other equipment, which caused some of the delays. The village had to rent snow-removal equipment from other contractors to cope with the accumulation.

The blizzard blanketed the village with 15 to 20 inches of snow.

Quigley said that the timing of the storm — between two holidays — may have been a factor in the slow response. Some workers in the Public Works and Sanitation departments were on vacation and unavailable to help.

By last Wednesday, however, Quigley said, he noticed that village streets were much clearer and safer to drive on than they had been two days earlier, and that side streets were almost completely cleared as well.

That night, payloaders were brought to the village’s municipal lots, where crews worked into the early-morning hours of Thursday to clear mountains of snow and transport it to Centennial Park, uncovering parking spaces that had been blocked. By Friday, snow removal had been completed.

There were no significant injuries reported during the storm, and few problems with electricity. But the uneven cleanup was the subject of some complaints by business owners who were not pleased with what they thought was a poor job of snow removal.

Marty Masarik, manager of Bargain Liquors on Sunrise Highway, described the village’s management of the blizzard as “disappointing.” “It wasn’t until late Tuesday morning that all the snow was cleared from our back parking lot,” Masarik said. “I lost business for a day and a half.”

Others were less critical. “The cleanup was swift,” said Edward Figueroa, an assistant store manager at Ace Hardware. “I thought it was handled properly. It was a little hiccup on the radar screen, like all the other blizzards.”

Likewise, resident Ted David spoke highly of the snow cleanup process. “Hats off to the county, the town and the village for great snow removal …,” David wrote to the Herald. “Sunrise Highway and N. Long Beach Road and even my street were plowed down close to the pavement” on Sunday night as he drove home during the blizzard, he added.