Cove-Area Road Crews Tackle First Big Storm of 2022

The first major winter storm hit the Cove region this week dumping approximately six inches of snow between Sunday evening, Jan. 16, and Monday morning, Jan. 17.

Municipal road crews were ready in advance and hit the streets when the storm began, working throughout the night plowing and salting as a steady snow fell.

Freedom Township Roadmaster Ed Bender said a plan was in place to tackle the storm and that everything went as expected.

“The storm came in like we wanted it to,” he said. “We had a pretty good idea of how to approach it.”

Bender said crews first hit the streets at around 6 p.m. Sunday evening, laying a mixture of salt and anti-skid material and then went back out at 3 a.m. to plow. Bender said the roads were in “decent shape” by morning and crews would be making more passes throughout the day.

Bender said Freedom Township has approximately 25 miles of road to maintain with a lot of hills and backroads.

“There are some tricky spots but we know how to handle them,” he said.

Preparing for a winter storm begins long before the first flake falls. Road crews do checks to ensure all the equipment is in top working order and that there is enough salt not only for the current storm, but the rest of the winter. Bender said he restocks the Township’s salt supply every spring, so the township enters each winter with a full supply.

“We start every winter full,” he said. “Right now, I have close to 100 tons of salt,” he said.

By Monday morning, the snow stopped falling but that didn’t mean the end of the work. As winds picked up throughout the day, Bender said they would be out opening roads that drifted shut.

“We have a lot of open areas that drift so we make sure to keep after that,” he said.

Roaring Spring Maintenance Supervisor Wyatt Simington said his crew gathered at the borough maintenance yard at around 5 p.m. Sunday and got to work plowing and salting borough streets shortly after. He said they worked until midnight and started up again early Monday. Like Bender, Simington said it makes his job easier when he knows what’s coming.

“With this storm, we knew what to expect and that’s pretty much what we got,” he said. “We had a plan already laid out for it.”

Simington said the borough called a snow emergency which required residents to remove their vehicles from the streets.

“That makes it a lot easier to clear the streets,” he said.

In Williamsburg, Mayor Ted Hyle said crews were on top of the storm and although he didn’t call a snow emergency, plow drivers found that most borough residents moved their vehicles.

“It went very smoothly,” Hyle said. “People here help us a lot by moving their cars and allowing the plows a clear a path.”

Hyle said borough crews began working the storm Sunday evening and that the roads were in good shape by morning.

Area fire companies reported a quiet night with few, if any storm related calls.

Hyle, who also serves a chief of the Williamsburg Volunteer Fire Company, said they had a few medical calls but no accidents.

“People stayed home for this one,” he said.

Other than a call for downed wires on Monday afternoon, things were quiet for the Freedom Township Volunteer Fire Company.

“We were ready as we always are, but thankfully weren’t needed,” said Freedom Township Fire Chief Ron Henry. “People stayed off the roads.”

Friendship Volunteer Fire Company Assistant Chief James Musselman said they didn’t have any calls during the storm but as the wind began to pick up through Monday afternoon, calls for downed trees began to come in.

“I think most people heeded the warning and didn’t travel,” Musselman said.