Valley recovers from 2016's 1st major snowstorm

February 17, 2016 at 12:01a.m.

Staff report

It’s all over but the shoveling.

After surviving the heaviest snowfall so far this winter Tuesday morning, Mahoning Valley residents will get a breather.

“The worst is over,” said Zach Sefcovic, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Cleveland.

The Mahoning Valley could see a bit of snow today, but it will be minimal.

“Any accumulation will be very little – a half an inch as worst-case scenario,” he said.

The National Weather Service in Cleveland predicted cloudy skies and a chance of snow in the morning and afternoon today, with the possibility of an accumulation of one inch with high temperatures in the lower 30s. Tonight, the prediction is for partly cloudy skies and snow showers after midnight with a low temperature of about 10.

Thursday calls for partly cloudy skies with high temperatures in the upper 20s, but no snow is forecast. On Friday, skies will be mostly cloudy with a chance of rain showers in the afternoon and temperatures in the upper 40s.

Valley residents should be able to stow away their boots and ice scrapers, at least for the short-term.

It’s a chance to recover after deep snow snarled traffic and closed schools Tuesday.

Snow depth

Austintown saw the most snow in the Valley with 10 inches. Youngstown saw 8.5 inches, and 8 inches fell on Boardman and Poland.

In Trumbull County, Newton Falls saw 7.6 inches, and the Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport in Vienna got 6.4 inches.

Usually it’s the other way around, with more snowfall in Trumbull than Mahoning County.

“With the system coming from the south it had the opposite effect,” Sefcovic said. “We’re normally used to a lot of lake-effect snow systems coming in from Canada. Because this one came through from the south and east, Youngstown and Mahoning County got more snow.”

Communities’ overtime and salt supplies took a hit after getting through most of the winter barely touched, while the heavy snow stranded many motorists on their morning commutes.

Dan Dickten, the airport’s director of aviation, said the airport has saved money this season by not having to plow as much.

Youngstown Mayor John A. McNally said city plows had trouble keeping pace with Tuesday’s rapidly falling snow.

All 14 trucks were on the street starting about 2 a.m., focusing on the main streets, which is the first priority, he said.

Cleanup

The problem was “it was a heavy snow, so it took longer to plow than powdered snow,” McNally said. “Overall, I was pleased.”

The city received phone calls Tuesday from residents complaining their streets weren’t plowed, he said.

“The side streets are not the immediate priority in a snowstorm like that,” McNally said.

“Some folks expect these messes to get cleared up automatically, but we had a lot of snow and it was falling very fast.”

Plowing in the neighborhoods started about 3 a.m. Tuesday, he said.

The rate of snowfall also posed problems for Boardman road crews while police responded to 60 calls of disabled vehicles between 3:30 a.m. and about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Township Road Superintendent Larry Wilson said residents’ failure to comply with the township’s parking ban further complicated his crew’s work.

Road crews also were slowed down by numerous incidents in which they stopped to help motorists whose vehicles were stuck, Wilson said.

“We came out [Monday night] and started plowing, and basically could not keep up with it, like many in the area,” he said. Twenty-three road department workers, including Wilson, were working to clear the township’s roughly 500 streets Tuesday.

The department had nine trucks in use for bigger roads, and four for cul-de-sacs. No streets were treated as priorities over others, Wilson said.

Mishaps

Township police also responded to several weather-related accidents.

In one case, a semi-truck side-swiped a building at Akron Children’s Beeghly campus, police said. In another, police arrested Christian DeSantis, 43, of Poland, after a motorist reported that DeSantis, a private company snowplow driver, had brandished a gun while driving on Western Reserve Road, police said. He’s charged with misdemeanor aggravated menacing.

In Warren, plow drivers operated 24 hours, with crews tackling the main roads first and then the side streets.

Eight drivers were working Tuesday afternoon, two per quadrant in the city, plus a few pickup trucks cleaning up dead ends and parking lots, said Frank Tempesta, operations superintendent.

Liberty Road Department worked about 13 hours, beginning at midnight Tuesday. All the department’s five trucks were out on the streets.

Senior Foreman Gino Bidinotto estimated the department used about 60 tons of salt since the storm began, which he characterized as a small amount. Since the snowfall was constant, the department used salt more sparingly so as not to waste it, Bidinotto said.

“Everyone’s been doing their job, he said. “People have been paying attention to the parking ban and staying off the road.”

In Girard, police assisted three stranded motorists, but reported no accidents.

In Struthers, police assisted 10 stranded motorists throughout the storm.

In Columbiana County, more than 5,500 customers were left without electric power Tuesday morning because of the storm, FirstEnergy said. By 8 p.m. about 1,000 were still without power and, according to FirstEnergy’s website, some could be without electricity until 3 p.m. today.

The outages were caused when the wet, heavy snow brought down the lines or tree limbs were broken that fell across the power lines.

In Pennsylvania, Mercer County commissioners closed the county courthouse due to the weather emergency. Those who were scheduled for jury duty should call to find out when they will be required to report.

Also, Judge Thomas R. Dobson of Mercer County Common Pleas Court issued a court order extending the petition filing deadline for candidates for Republican precinct committee positions in the county one day. Those petitions must now be filed with the bureau of elections no later than 4:30 p.m. today.

Curbside recycling collections were postponed in Mahoning County due to hazardous road conditions, and there will be a one-day delay in those collections for the rest of the week, the county’s Recycling Division announced.

Schools

Most Valley schools remained closed Tuesday, extending a long Presidents’ Day weekend. Even Youngstown State University canceled morning classes.

YSU spokesman Ron Cole acknowledged that’s a rarity.

“I think we try to stay open as long as it’s safe,” he said.

Cole said work crews arrived on campus at about 2:30 a.m. to assess the situation and remove whatever snow they could.

“They looked at the forecast of what’s going on throughout the region in terms of road conditions and assessed their ability to clean up sidewalks and roadways in the campus core, in and around campus, the primary factor also being safety of students, employees and others coming to campus,” he said.

YSU is different from primary and secondary schools, Cole said, explaining, “Our students and employees are adults, and we have confidence in their ability to plan for inclement weather.”

Counties

Getting an early start was important to Mahoning County Engineer Patrick Ginnetti, whose snow removal crews started at

8 p.m. Monday and finished at 4 p.m. Tuesday, driving 20 trucks to make all 485 miles of county roads passable.

“We had a very good jump by starting early [Monday] night. That enabled us to get some [salt and slag] on the roads before the heavy stuff hit,” he said.

The weight of the heavy, wet snow puts significant wear and tear on the plow trucks and knocks down many mailboxes close to the road, which the engineer’s office repairs or replaces, he said.

Ginnetti urged motorists to leave sufficient space between themselves and a plow truck and be careful if they try to pass the truck because snow thrown from a plow blade could hit a windshield and cause an accident.

Columbiana County road crews began responding to the snowstorm at 10 p.m. Monday, said Bill Helscel, county road superintendent, who was preparing to send crews home at midafternoon Tuesday.

“The snow was steady the entire night. If we would have stopped for any length of time, we would have gotten behind,” Helscel said.

However, he added: “The warmer temperatures absolutely helped our cause. Between the sun, the warmth and the salt, the outcome was tremendous.”

All 169 miles of county roads on 14 snow plow truck routes were passable as of mid-afternoon Tuesday, he said.