By Doug Miller
Strong coastal winds helped limit the snow accumulation in Long Beach last weekend, so a storm that dropped more than 2 feet on neighboring communities went easy on the City by the Sea. Accumulation topped out unofficially at around a foot, City Manager John Laffey guesstimated.
No snow-related injuries or arrests were reported, although an SUV hit a slick patch late Saturday night and drove through the front window of the Joseph Christopher Salon on West Park Avenue. The driver was not cited.
Laffey declared a snow emergency at 4 p.m. on Saturday, in anticipation of the pending nor'easter bearing down on the area. According to city officials, announcing the emergency early allowed residents time to move their cars from snow emergency routes - Park Avenue, Beech Street, Park Place, Shore Road, Pine Street and Maryland Avenue - before the storm, permitting snowplow crews to work from curb to curb.
Beginning at midnight on Saturday, 40 city workers from the Highway, Sanitation and Beach Maintenance departments used 35 pieces of equipment - eight salt spreaders, 25 plows and two front-end loaders - to clear the city's nearly 60 miles of streets. Plowing continued throughout the night and well into Sunday. Sunday evening, a smaller work crew came in to re-plow and clean where lingering snow had accumulated.
An estimate of the cost of the snow removal efforts was not available at press time, but Laffey said that because the storm hit on a weekend, all of the workers would receive overtime pay.
City officials said in a statement that they expected to have the commuter parking lot, bus terminal, Park Avenue, Beech Street, Broadway, Shore Road, the East Loop and West End bus routes, areas around the schools and around the Long Beach Medical Center ready for use by Monday morning's commute. "I tip my hat to the City of Long Beach work force," Laffey said. "They were out there in long, cold, wet conditions, and what we've been hearing from the public is the guys did a pretty good job."
The city lifted the snow emergency at 9 a.m. Monday. City crews began working on secondary and tertiary roads later that day.
All schools in the Long Beach City School District were closed Monday. Parents were notified the night before. City Hall was closed Monday in observance of Lincoln's Birthday, and will be closed Feb. 20 for Presidents' Day.
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
