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Grand Island was diligent in fighting back this week's snow accumulations. (Photo by Dick Crawford)
Grand Island was diligent in fighting back this week's snow accumulations. (Photo by Dick Crawford)

Grand Island crews battle the snow

Fri, Jan 24th 2025 06:55 am

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Grand Island escaped the brunt of the snowstorm that snarled the Southtowns and slowed traffic through the Tonawandas, but town highway crews still had a big job ahead of them Tuesday afternoon.

Town Highway Superintendent Dick Crawford was breathing a sigh of relief Wednesday morning and pleased with the job crews did to clear 150 miles of road on Grand Island.

“The beauty is, right now, the sun is out, which is our best friend after it snows,” he said. “Our viewpoint: This was just a regular snow. It was nothing tough; nothing particular; there were no winds. It did come down heavy a few times – accumulation 2 to 4 inches – it’s a day in the park for any highway department.”

Elsewhere, it was a different story on Tuesday, especially, with heavy snow in areas south of Buffalo and, eventually in parts of Buffalo, as well.

“It’s tough when you have heavy winds and you have hours upon hours of what the Southtowns gets – heavy lake-effect,” Crawford said. “We were on the fringe of the heavy lake-effect. I happened to go over toward Tonawanda about 1 o’clock-ish, and I got to the Chevy plant and I turned around and came back because the snow was just coming down significantly, at a larger-per-inch base than we were getting here on Grand Island.”

Folks returning home to Grand Island in those areas Tuesday afternoon faced some slow-going. The trip on the I-290 West was one of greatly reduced visibility, with a spin-out here and there as motorists saw their driving skills put to the test.

Schools were closed – on Grand Island primarily for the single-digit temperatures kids would face, as well as the difficulty of getting faculty and staff in from parts of Erie County that were hard-hit.

Due to weather conditions and the travel advisory put in place by Erie County, the Town Board workshop and meeting scheduled for Tuesday night were canceled.

There will be a special meeting of the Town Board later this week for audit approval and to reset the date for the public hearing scheduled for Tuesday night’s meeting. That date and time will be posted to the town’s website, www.grand-island.ny.us.

All the town’s roads were clear, as of Wednesday morning.

“With the county roads, there’s a total of about 150 miles of road that we plow,” Crawford said. “We went through probably about 100 ton of salt, and, due to issues with our salt provider with being able to deliver to other customers, deliveries are slow, but we’re still getting salt.”

There were eight Grand Island plows out to clear the roads Tuesday.

“It’s all hands on deck,” Crawford said. “Everybody is working like a finely tuned orchestra to get out there and do their routes, depending upon weather and the conditions, anywhere from 2 and ½ to three hours to do. When you get those types of snows, we’re concentrating first on keeping the long roads clear and then we get into the subdivisions. A couple of times we reverted to that, just because it was coming down at a good clip.”

Between noon and 3:30 p.m. Tuesday was the worst of Grand Island’s snowfall, he said.

“It was consistent, and you had some reprieves – some let-ups as the band shifted,” Crawford said.

“We always take heed of the warnings and prepare for those. Fortunately, we did not get the amount that they thought we were going to get – or the duration, either,” he added. “We hit every street, every storm – we never miss a street.”

Crawford had a word of advice for residents: “Make sure you brush off your car – that means your rear window, your roof – and just drive with caution. You never know what the road condition is going to be, even when it’s been salted and the magnesium chloride has been mixed with the salt. Just respect the road and respect the person that’s driving in front of you.”

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