CENTRAL JERSEY: Area has little trouble dealing with new snowstorm

By Victoria Hurley-Schubert, Staff Writer
   Mother Nature had great timing this time around and crews had Princeton Borough cleaned up by the morning rush from the storm that dumped 8 to 10 inches of snow on the area Tuesday night.
   However, schools in the Princeton Regional, West Windsor-Plainsboro and Montgomery districts were closed Wednesday due to the snow.
   Judy Wilson, superintendent of Princeton Regional Schools, said this was the first snow day of the academic calendar, which will extend the year one day at the end of June.
   ”For us, it’s not the properties that have to be clear, it’s the bus routes that need to be cleared and the faculty coming in for the 3,600 children,” said Ms. Wilson.
   Princeton Regional Schools does not build snow days into its calendar, she said.
   Area police departments reported a few minor accidents but no injuries. In Princeton Borough and Township police reported several fender benders and a couple of cars stuck due to the storm. In Montgomery, police Lt. James Curry said that Tuesday night one vehicle had slid into a parked car in the parking lot at Montgomery High School, and two vehicles slid off the road in separate accidents. There were no injuries and only minor damage in the parking lot crash, he said.
   West Windsor police reported one minor accident at around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday and 12 disabled cars between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. No accidents were reported for Wednesday morning.
   ”It looks like people heeded the warnings, and stayed off the roads,” Lt. Frank Caponi said.
   Plainsboro police did not return calls regarding snow-related accidents by press time.
   Snow began to fall about 7:30 p.m. in Princeton Tuesday night with the heaviest around midnight, when Department of Public Works personnel began arriving in the borough to do battle with the 4 inches already on the ground. An overnight storm that begins after the regular workday is over is ideal for public works crews, who have an easier time plowing without obstacles and traffic.
   ”It’s good that all the cars were off the road,” said Wayne Carr, Princeton Borough director of public works. “Princeton is a unique town because it goes from morning until night and there are cars on the street al the time.”
   Three trucks were on each side of the borough for plowing. A backhoe and front-end loader maintained emergency buildings and parking lots.
   ”Everybody likes to plow in the big trucks, no body likes doing the sidewalks and bus stops; they hate that, but I’ve got a good group,” said Mr. Carr.
   With roadways clean enough for safe passage, crews will intensify their cleanup efforts, beginning with parking lots and refining the streets from curb to curb and clearing parking spaces.
   The smaller streets in town, such as Bank, Pine and Moran, prove to be one of the biggest challenges for crews because they are so narrow. Residents who move their cars back exacerbate the problem and create a hazard for their neighbors because it takes time for municipal employees to remove the snow from the streets once a path has been plowed to allow room for parking. Residents should not park their cars on the street until clean up curb-to-curb has been completed because it creates a safety hazard when emergency vehicles can’t get through.
   ”Once they park in there, nobody can get by,” said Mr. Carr.
   For the rest of the week, DPW crews will continue to plow and pick up the snow and truck it over to the Sewer Operating Committee’s property on River Road where it will sit until summer. About 200 to 300 hundred truckloads of snow will be moved by the weekend. After the blizzard last month, about 400 truckloads were taken over to the dump site.
   ”If I don’t haul it, when the next time it snows there’s nowhere to push it,” said Mr. Carr.
   In some ways, snow cleanup is a losing battle, especially when residents and private contractors blow or shovel the snow right back into the freshly plowed streets. “It looks like you didn’t do anything,” said Mr. Carr.
   Snow, whether 8 inches or 2 feet, still costs money to clean up. During last month’s blizzard, the DPW used 75 tons of salt on borough roadways, which costs $75 per ton. Surprisingly, both storms will cost about the same in the end — about $30,000, he said — because of the extended cleanup this week with the blizzard leftovers and the new snow.
   When the snow is picked up, the next weather-related chore begins— pothole repair. Crews do a cold patch process in the winter and then permanent fixes with hot patch material begin in the spring, said Mr. Carr. Pot holes cost between $80 and $100 each to repair.
   Snow clean up puts the DPW a bit behind with all it’s other jobs, such as trash removal, Christmas tree removal and leaf and brush pickup, said Mr. Carr.
Staff writers Stephanie Vaccaro and Allison Musante contributed to this report.