By ANTHONY BOTTAN
Mayor Ed Cahill said planning for the storm in advance helped the village's Department of Public Works prepare for the largest snowfall of the year. Cahill said the DPW began preparing salt and sand mixtures for the roads last week, and had plows hooked up to the village's trucks by Sunday afternoon. He noted that mechanics worked on the trucks last week, making sure they were tuned up and all set to go.
"We were ready," Cahill said.
Tim Leahy, highway supervisor, said there were 15 plows on the roads from about 11 p.m. Sunday until 7 a.m. Tuesday. Leahy explained that after the snow stopped, his crew went back to clean up the roads "from curb to curb" and answer any complaints about problems like piles of snow blocking driveways. "If there's something we can do to help, we do," he said. "We tell people, 'Don't shovel out your driveway until we plow.'"
Overall, snow plowing went smoothly along the 70 miles of roads the village's highway department is responsible for clearing, Leahy said. After the roads were done, he added, crews tackled village parking lots.
Alan Oppenheimer, owner of True Value Hardware on Central Avenue, said he put out all the snow-removal equipment the store had, and by 5:30 p.m. on Sunday it was all gone. "We're out of everything we had," Oppenheimer said. "We had about 200 bags of snow salt and 50 shovels, and everything went. We're clean out."
Village Hall and the Henry Waldinger Library were closed on Monday, and Cahill said the DPW worked from Sunday night straight through Monday and into Tuesday plowing roads, with no reported problems. The Long Island Power Authority reported no power outages in Valley Stream or its surrounding communities.
Dr. Ed Fale, superintendent of District 24, said school officials decided at around 8:15 p.m. Sunday night to close schools the following day so that parents with young children had time to prepare. "We made the decision early so that parents could make arrangements for child care if they needed to," Fale said.
He added that the district tested the new school messenger system, which calls students' homes to inform them that school will be closed, and reported no problems. Fale said that the district had not used any of its four days up to now, so canceling school wasn't a concern. "It's March and the chances of us using all of them are slim," he said.
Michelle D'Elia, president of the Valley Stream Council of PTAs, said she had to take the day off to tend to her four children, but her boss is flexible and understood the situation. "I work part-time, so I didn't get paid today," D'Elia said on Monday. "It didn't make that much of a difference to me. The kids were off and we had a nice snow day at home."
James Lavery, first vice president of the Council of PTA's, said he runs his own landscaping business, so he is off in the winter anyway, and was able to stay home with his son. But the snow created new work for him - plowing his customers' driveways and walkways.
Claudia Tarquino, the kindergarten PTA chairwoman for Howell Road Elementary School, said she goes to school during the day and her husband is a teacher, so they both were off and got to spend some quality time with their kids.
Andrew Hackmack contributed to this story. Comments about it? ABottan@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 246.
