Area recovers from storm that dropped 2 feet of flakes.
By:Eve Collins and Vanessa S. Holt
Dump trucks hauled miniature mountains of snow off Farnsworth Avenue to Gilder Park in Bordentown City on Wednesday morning, clearing the street of nearly 2 feet of snow that fell Sunday and Monday.
Streets and parking lots throughout the area began to take shape again on Wednesday as road crews carved paths through the walls of ice and snow that line every street.
Bordentown Township Administrator John Mason said snow removal there also was going well. Main arteries as well as secondary streets are cleared, he said.
"I want to commend the Public Works people for doing such a good job under these circumstances," he said.
Mr. Mason said despite the mild winters the area has experienced in the past five years, the department was prepared because the weathermen predicted the storm so accurately.
The township’s Public Works Department has been working since Sunday morning, he said. They took a short break on Monday at midnight and then resumed removal in the early morning on Tuesday.
The township has seven snowplows at work, Mr. Mason said.
Snow-blind residents of Bordentown City took to the streets with shovels as early as Monday morning on a mission to excavate cars, minivans and trucks from almost 2 feet of snow.
Mayor John Collom and Assemblyman Joseph Malone, R-30th, both residents of Farnsworth Avenue, stood at its intersection with East Burlington Street around noon on Monday as a team of plows and bulldozers cleared snow off the streets and piled it at the corners of the two main thoroughfares.
A huge mound of snow filled an empty lot at the corner of Farnsworth Avenue and East Burlington Street until construction vehicles began the snow removal process on Wednesday.
While snow removal is expensive, Mayor Collom said the worst thing about this kind of storm is having city workers out in the cold all day trying to manage the unwieldy white mess.
On other streets in the city some cars were almost completely obscured by snow and many streets were impassable on Monday. People digging out their cars on Prince Street told motorists trying to get down the street not to bother.
Up and down the street, cars were almost completely buried in white and residents attempted the daunting task of shoveling out what seemed to be an insurmountable amount of snow.
On Monday afternoon, when the main part of the storm was over, the National Weather Service reported that 20 inches had fallen in Bordentown.
Early Monday morning a pair of Bordentown Regional High School students shoveled the sidewalk along Farnsworth Avenue.
"We were bored," said one young man. During the day, the street was empty except for plows, shovelers and pedestrians walking their dogs.
Florence police Capt. Joseph Gadbois said there were no major accidents in Florence during the snowstorm and most people seemed to have heeded the governor’s declaration of a state emergency, staying off the roads throughout the storm.
"It made things easier for the road-clearing crews," he said.
Most of the calls received by police during the storm pertained to abandoned or improperly parked vehicles, he said.
Mansfield Township Superintendent Jeff Jones said the Public Works Department was very prepared.
"We’re pros at this," he said. "We’ve been doing it for years."
Mr. Jones said the department stayed on top of the situation the whole time. Even the volunteer firefighters stayed the night in the firehouse in case of major emergencies, he said. He said the township and county employees worked together to get the job done.
The department’s main concern on Tuesday was preparing bus routes for school on Wednesday. They had to make sure roads were wide enough for buses to pass each other, he said.
"Mother Nature was good to us (Tuesday)," he said, referring to the sunshine and warmer temperatures, which would prevent the department from having to spread salt.
Mr. Jones could not estimate the amount of hours workers have spent clearing the snow, but did say that the measure was cost effective this year.
Area schools were closed Tuesday and evening events were canceled, including a community meeting about special education services scheduled Tuesday night in the Bordentown Regional School District. It has been rescheduled to 5 p.m. March 4 in the Bordentown Regional High School library.
Superintendent John Polomano said Bordentown City, Bordentown Township and Fieldsboro Borough road crews had been doing a good job clearing the roads.
"It gets to the point where you don’t have a place to put the snow," he said.
Tuesday’s snow day was the third of the school year so far, he said.
"I don’t know yet how we’ll adjust our calendars," he said. "I thought we were out of the woods at the end of January."

