The fierce winter storm that lashed Ashtabula County should ease this weekend, but travel still will be tricky in Ashtabula, where snowplows have been parked temporarily to save money.
Because of budget problems, plows in Ashtabula stopped working at 3 p.m. Friday and won’t be back on the road until 11 p.m. Sunday, said Dom Iarocci, the city’s superintendent of public services. Iarocci said he is obeying an order issued by City Manager Anthony Cantagallo, which forbids paying public-works employees any overtime. The order will help reduce Ashtabula’s $862,000 budget deficit, officials said at the time the order was issued. Iarocci said he had no choice but to pull the plows off the road at the conclusion of Friday’s shift.
“I do what I’m told,” he said. “I’m certainly concerned for the safety of the citizens, but we have budgetary problems.”
Cantagallo was away from his office and not immediately available for comment Friday afternoon.
The storm coated roads with several inches of snow and ice. Strong winds caused snow to drift. Police scanners crackled with reports of vehicles spinning and sliding off highways, including that of at least one semi-truck that jackknifed on Interstate 90.
As of early Friday afternoon, 6 inches of snow was on the ground along the Ashtabula lakefront, said Ron Coursen, a National Weather Service observer. Eight inches coated the ground in Dorset, according to NWS spotter Greg Becker.
The blast was enough to close schools across the county. Many districts have nearly exhausted the five calamity days issued each school year. Once those days are used up, districts have to make up every day they cancel class, somewhere on their remaining 2009-10 calendar.
The storm began in earnest Thursday afternoon and may have contributed to a power outage that affected 9,339 Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. customers. A truck struck electrical equipment on Benefit Avenue in Ashtabula, triggering a chain of events that ultimately shut down a substation, said CEI area manager Mark Jones. The outage ranged from Ashtabula east to North Kingsville and south to Orwell, officials said.
A winter weather warning issued by NWS was scheduled to end Friday night, but snow remains in today’s forecast. Another 2 to 4 inches could fall by this evening, the agency is reporting.
Snow will taper off Sunday, and temperatures will climb into the high 30s, according to NWS.
Despite the storm, snow totals for this winter remain below normal, Coursen said. So far this season, 81 inches of snow have fallen at Coursen’s weather station, he said. Last year at this time, 127 inches had been tracked, he said.
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