By Jeff Lipton and Karen Rice
About six inches of the white stuff fell on Dec. 5 at a rate of about an inch an hour as village, town and county employees went to work plowing snow and melting ice with a mix of salt and sand.
Everything went smoothly, said Susan Galante, village clerk of Hewlett Harbor. Our roads were great. There were no problems; everyone was prepared for this one. It's the ones that come in the middle of the night while you're sleeping that get you.
Those sentiments were echoed by other village officials in the Five Towns. [The storm was] no problem at all, said Marie Velotti, village clerk of Woodsburgh, Hewlett Neck and Hewlett Bay Park. We were well-prepared. We have our own road maintenance man who plows all the roads in Woodsburgh. He's usually very good. I haven't heard any complaints.
But motorists didn't fare as well. Police at the Fourth Precinct reported 35 accidents on Thursday for the precinct, 20 more than the same day two weeks earlier. Police were not able to break the number down for the Five Towns. The Fourth Precinct covers the Five Towns, Atlantic Beach, Oceanside, Island Park, East Rockaway, Lido Beach and Point Lookout.
It was a huge jump in the number of accidents, said Fourth Precinct Capt. James O'Leary. Obviously, the condition of the roads contributed to it and it was a combination of that and the motorists' failure to slow down in those conditions. It's kind of like a traffic nightmare. It was busy for us that day and it was all traffic-related.
O'Leary added that on the flip side, there were fewer crimes committed during the storm, so police could concentrate on the safety of motorists. The number of calls [for service] decreased, but it was more than made up for in the number of traffic responses, he said.
School response differs
Students at Hewlett-Woodmere schools enjoyed half a snow day, as these schools had an early dismissal. Dr. Myrna Uhlich, deputy superintendent of Hewlett-Woodmere, described it as staggered closings, with students let out 90 minutes before their regular dismissal times.
The superintendent monitored the weather situation, and he determined that due to the snow and ice, it was important to let school out early so everyone could get home safely and in a reasonable amount of time, Uhlich said.
We have to consider the buses and how long they would need to get everyone home safe, she added. We also have to notify all the parents. If there's a problem and a child cannot be picked up earlier, we keep the children until the regular dismissal time.
Uhlich said only the students go home early, not the staff. We stay until every child is accounted for, she said.
Dr. Mark Rosenbaum, superintendent of the Lawrence Public Schools, which dismissed students at the regular time, said all went smoothly at his schools. But some parents and teachers were not happy with the decision not to shorten the school day.
My son drives to school, and this was his first snowstorm, said one parent of a Lawrence High student. He just got his license and he has never driven in the snow before. They should have let the students out early, before the roads got really bad. I would not have minded. If the school called and asked if my son could drive home early, I would have been fine with that. The district knows that many of the kids drive.
The later it gets, the colder it gets, and the roads get more treacherous, said a parent of a Lawrence Middle School student, who was also upset with the district's decision. And the snowfall was heavier the second part of the day. If they let him out early, I would have been able to run him home with no problem.
Stephen Clements, president of the Lawrence Teachers Association, said he would not comment on teachers' reaction to the superintendent's decision other than to say, I heard a couple of complaints about it.
Clements said the district is alloted four snow days, and after that it must make up for any time missed due to snow at the end of the year, which can cause problems for teachers who have made vacation plans. He added that he appreciated district administrators' difficulties in deciding on snow days.
It's a tough decision to make, he said. The administration must use good judgment. It's a hard call.
Some stores rake it in
While most business suffers during a snowstorm, hardware stores do some of their best business of the year. John Baker, a manager at True Value Hardware, said his employees sold about four dozen bags of salt and two dozen shovels last Thursday.
It was all left over from last year, he said. From what I've heard, we had more snow [from this storm] than we did all last winter. We sold out of snow shovels. We'll get more in maybe next week probably after the snow melts.
James Leone, who works at Gino's pizza shop in Lawrence, said, Tips are definitely better when it snows. When people open the door and look outside, they say, Wow, you came all the way out here in this?' I got $5 for going around the block, so I'm not complaining.
Joe Gelb, president of the Hewlett Business Association, said he has no complaints, since the parking lots and streets were immediately cleared of snow, making it easier for shoppers to get to stores. But, he said, most businesses do suffer when it snows that hard.
Gelb said it appeared that merchants pitched in to clear the snow from their sidewalks. I think everybody got through it extremely well, he said.
Town responds to emergency
The Town of Hempstead, which took harsh criticism two years ago for not responding appropriately to a winter storm, was well prepared this time. The town equipped its workers with 50,000 tons of salt and 250 pieces of snow-clearing equipment, said Susan Trinkle, a town spokesperson. Salt spreaders and plows were on the roads at 1 p.m., when there was enough snow to clear.
I know from our end we were definitely prepared, Trinkle said. The staff was all set and ready to go. And she said the communication among the departments sanitation, highway and conservation and waterways was all very good. About 17,000 tons of salt was needed to melt the ice from town roads, including Inwood, Hewlett and Woodmere.
Cedarhurst Mayor Andrew Parise said village workers spread about 100 tons of salt and sand on local roads and six plows were able to clear the snow. We were right on top of things, he said. There were no problems. We started during the day and ended at midnight. He said that parking lots could not be cleared, however, until cars were driven away.
Peter Overs, Lawrence village administrator, said the village has been clearing snow for many years and was prepared for the storm. We put down salt in the morning to help minimize the snow and we were out plowing, he said.
Atlantic Beach officials said they fared similarly well. The two plows used in the village hit the roads around noon, and other equipment spread a mixture of salt and sand.
