Centre County handles late-winter storm

Several hours before the first snowflake touched Centre County ground early on the morning of March 14, boroughs and townships were busy preparing for what some were calling “The Storm of the Century.”

While the storm fell far short of that moniker, crews were prepared for the worst.

Patton Township and State College Borough announced weather emergencies early on the afternoon of March 13 and schools around the region also made the call to cancel classes March 14 because of the forecast.

“We put the plows on the trucks early and we made sure everything was working properly,” said Larry Pegher, director of finance and administration in Patton Township. “There’s really nothing you can do in advance of a storm like this. Of course, we treated the roadways, but our main goal is to keep the roadways cleared for the motoring public. We just want to keep everyone safe.”

According to Pegher, the township has 18 employees to handle plowing. He also said the Patton Township Police Department is key to safety during weather events such as this.

In Rush Township, roadmaster Tom Baney worked with a crew of just four to handle the plowing in one of the state’s largest townships.

“We have to look at the emergency routes and the school routes first,” said Baney. “That’s our main priority. It’s tough to keep up with heavy snow with just a handful of us, but we’re pretty good at what we do and we believe we can handle just about any kind of weather event with the staff we have.”

Joel Watson, borough manager in Philipsburg, said roads were pretreated with salt March 13. Like in Rush Township, Philipsburg Borough uses a four-person crew to handle all the plowing.

“If we need to, we would hire extra help to come in,” said Watson. “But we feel confident we can handle everything ourselves. The crew has been together for a while, so they know what they are doing.”

In addition to the plows, the borough has other equipment in its fleet to remove snow, including a loader and a snowblower, which projects the fluffy white stuff directly into the bed of a waiting truck.

“We try to get as much of it out of the way as we can, especially on Front Street,” said Watson. “We pile it up at J.J. Powell’s parking lot and just leave it melt.”

RESIDENTS DIG OUT

 When the sun revealed the snowfall on the morning of March 14, residents of the county took to their sidewalks and driveways with shovels and snowblowers. Plows continued moving massive amounts of snow throughout the county. And children, home on a snow day, looked for the best slopes to sled ride down.

The National Weather Service reported the State College area received about 8 inches of snow as of late morning March 14. Light snow continued to fall in the afternoon and the following morning. Most school districts in Centre County cancelled classes again March 15, or announced early morning delays.

Accuweather forecasted about 10 inches total from the storm in the State College area.

Eric Brooks, operations manager with State College Borough, said there were no weather-related incidents in the borough.

“We didn’t really have any issue whatsoever during the event,” Brooks said. “We were lucky in the fact that the storm was more to the east so we didn’t get the snowfall that was predicted.”

He said, though, the challenges came on March 15. With temperatures barely reaching double digits in the morning, Brooks said the salt on the roads wasn’t working effectively; however, he said the temperature was expected to raise to about 25 degrees, which makes the salting more effective.

Crews were still working 12-hour shifts as they attempted to remove the piles of snow downtown.

“It’s all about the cleanup now,” said Brooks. “I think we were rather lucky with this one.”

Geoff Rushton of StateCollege.com contributed to this story.