Boardman man found dead as Valley braces for Round 2

Market St. Snow Issues

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Monday morning commuters found Market St in Boardman still snow covered in places

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By DAVID SKOLNICK and DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS

YOUNGSTOWN — A 63-year-old Boardman Township man was found dead with his shovel in a snow bank, apparently succumbing over the weekend while shoveling.

Boardman police are investigating the death of George Harris of Woodview Avenue, whose body was found in a 36-inch snow bank Monday morning by someone who had come to plow a driveway and called police, according to a police report.

Police said the neighbors, who hadn’t seen the man for a couple of days, called his family. When family members arrived at his home, they found Harris’s cane gone but his cellular phone and car keys still in the house.

An additional 6 to 9 inches of snow is expected for the Mahoning Valley by Wednesday afternoon.

The National Weather Service predicts the snow will start to fall late this morning.

It won’t be “a crushing snowstorm” like the one this weekend, said Jim Kosarik, a NWS meteorologist.

The weekend storm saw accumulations of 16 to 20 inches in portions of Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

The initial forecast for the weekend had been 4 to 6 inches of snow.

But the storm moved farther south than expected causing the major accumulations in Mahoning and Columbiana counties, said Mark Monstrola, a meteorologist with WFMJ, The Vindicator’s broadcast partner.

The snow fell so hard and so fast that it took many by surprise.

“A lot of our plans were based on the weather reports,” said Justin Chesnic, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Transportation’s District 4, which includes Mahoning and Trumbull counties.

ODOT crews started working Friday afternoon as the snow started to fall, he said.

“There was too much snow falling too quickly forcing us to try to play catch-up,” Chesnic said.

Even with planning, there is little that could have been done differently because of the amount of snow that fell in a short time frame, he said.

First Energy workers are prepared for power outages during major snowstorms, said David Turner, its manager for Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

About 2,500 First Energy customers, mostly in the Salem area, were without power Friday and Saturday, he said.

When repair trucks can’t get to the source of power outages because of snow-covered roads, power restoration is delayed, he said.

“We were prepared for the inclement weather, but we were battling road conditions,” Turner said. “There are portions of Mahoning and Columbiana counties that are fairly rural. It affected our response time for repairs. Some of our [power station] locations are on rural side streets.”

The Valley was under a winter storm warning as of Tuesday night.

Larry Wilson, Boardman’s road superintendent, said township crews are bracing for another winter blast.

“That means we’re going to get snow,” Wilson said.

The National Weather Service is predicting up to five more inches of snow today, and a chance of snow showers Wednesday (70 percent), Thursday and Saturday 9both 30 percent).

Friday is the only day this week without snow in the NWS forecast.

The official NWS snow accumulation for the weekend was 8.4 inches. The NWS’s official weather measurements are taken at the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna. Unofficial totals ranged from 7 inches in Kinsman to 18 inches in Austintown.

While ODOT crews worked around the clock to clear state roads and interstates in townships, there were plenty of complaints, particularly about Market Street in Boardman.

“We’ve been getting a lot of complaints about the state roads,” Wilson said.

Cynthia Rogers of Boardman said she couldn’t believe how bad Market Street was in comparison to the roads plowed by the township and Mahoning County crews.

“Market Street was completely covered with snow” until Monday afternoon, two days after the storm ended, she said. “It was so bad that I told friends who were coming to my house [Sunday] for a Super Bowl party to take Glenwood Avenue, a county road.”

ODOT took care of Market Street on Monday afternoon. But Rogers said ODOT left the street almost flooded.

Salt was applied Friday night but when motorists drove over the snow, it got packed down.

Once that happens, it’s difficult for snow plows to pick it up, Wilson said.

“That starts you off behind,” Chesnic said.

Crews plow the roads, then treat them, sometimes leaving slush behind that refreezes.

Vehicles drive over that, he said, turning into a hard-packed surface.

“It’s like a sheet of ice in essence,” Chesnic said.

When temperatures dip way down, salt becomes less effective so ODOT mixes calcium with the salt.

“When it’s 15 degrees, you have to use five times the amount of salt,” Chesnic said. “When it’s 0 degrees, you have to use 11 times the amount of salt you would normally use” to get the same result. “That’s why we mix it with the calcium.”

Some motorists were skeptical that ODOT used salt on Market Street. But Chesnic insisted the salt-calcium mix was used on the road.

skolnick@vindy.com

denise_dick@vindy.com