Published December 5, 2019

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING —This too shall pass.

Even though we had been warned late last week to expect a long duration storm starting on Sunday and extending into Tuesday, how often are such long range forecasts on the money?

(Cue sound of crickets here)

Plus, it’s not even winter yet. Wasn’t it just Halloween?  Remnants of the Thanksgiving turkey are still hogging space in the refrigerator. It’s barely December.

So we went about our merry way not too concerned about how many flashlight batteries, gallons of milk and loaves of bread we had at home. Hundreds of us spent Sunday afternoon at the Holiday Light Festival, sponsored by the Reading-North Reading Chamber of Commerce on the Sunday after Thanksgiving for the past 14 years. The town common and all the buildings in the Center Village Historic District were a whirlwind of activity.

All of the historic buildings were open for tours, treats, storytimes and carols. Crowds of people enjoyed the Cookie Walk, crafts and songs in the library, and the little ones were busy taking pony rides, visiting Santa at Reading Coop, taking hayrides on the farm tractor and venturing into that really cool two-story gingerbread bouncy house/slide set up on the common.

It was a really nice touch when the snow flurries started to fall just as Santa arrived by fire truck to officially turn on the holiday lights at dusk. It was just enough to make everything sparkle.

PURE JOY! Little Tucker catches some air as he tests the running path his human plowed for him in their yard on Ridgeway Road after two days of snowy weather. This is how every kid in town felt upon learning that Superintendent Jon Bernard called a snow day for this past Tuesday. (Don Craig Photo)

How many of us expected that to be the end of it?

Fortunately, the town’s DPW took the forecast much more seriously as crews were sent out throughout the afternoon to pre-treat the roads and then plow overnight, ensuring a smooth commute and that the kids would get to school on time Monday.

But by mid-afternoon Monday, the storm was gaining steam and was not about to loosen its grip. JRM, the town’s trash hauler, sent word that the normal town-wide Tuesday trash and recycling pick-up would be delayed by one day. “They probably got really backlogged with some of their customers (Monday) and it is only going to get worse (Tuesday),” Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto told the Transcript.

But because the storm was increasing in intensity as the afternoon went on, he said the Select Board opted to cancel its Monday night meeting and condense as many agenda items as possible onto the docket for Monday, Dec. 16, its last of the year.

Late Monday afternoon, the library staff informed the public that the building would be closing at 5 p.m. rather than 8 p.m. School-age kids throughout town jumped for joy when they learned Superintendent Jon Bernard canceled school on Tuesday, December 3 while all other municipal buildings, including Town Hall, the Senior Center and the library, would not open be opening until noon on Tuesday.

The main danger of this storm was its duration and the expectation that snow would accumulate at a rate of 1 inch per hour coupled with high winds.

Fortunately, there were no local power outages of much significance; maybe a brief second here and there, just enough to have to re-set the clock on the microwave.

Gilleberto was pleased to report that the plowing operations had gone well Sunday and Monday. The fact that DPW crews were out pre-treating the roads before the storm helps with the management of snow removal operations once a storm hits hard.

“They were also out in the overnight, treating and plowing the roads as well. We were supplemented with contracted assistance that came in the overnight hours and the last of the contractors were relieved by 8 a.m. (Monday),” Gilleberto said.

“It is a long duration storm. It may only be falling at a rate of 2 inches over 12 hours but those those two inches need to be treated and the roads need to be treated on an ongoing basis. We are trying to work them in groups because we have another overnight to go through,” he added, referring to the Monday night into Tuesday morning shifts anticipated on Monday afternoon.

“If we spread them out they will be able to get some rest in anticipation of another overnight,” he said.

In the past few weeks the DPW has gotten a few more contract plow operators on board but “we did have a couple of contractors due to either personnel or equipment availability that were not able to assist us,” he said, adding that Chris Deming, the DPW’s highway operations manager, would like to have 30 pieces of contracted equipment. “We ended up with 20. They would be matched with about 20 pieces of town equipment. We would ideally have 50; we now have 40.”

Even at present staffing levels, Gilleberto said the roads were “pretty much at black pavement at 4:30 a.m. Monday. What complicated things was the snow that came through after that, which was not forecast.”

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), North Reading had received 7.5 inches of snow by 4:30 a.m. Monday. This amount had dramatically increased by Tuesday at 4 p.m. when a “trained weather spotter” for North Reading reported to the NWS that a total of 16.5 inches of snow had fallen in town for this storm event.

“We are working toward getting that full complement (of contracted equipment). This isn’t a situation where it had a dramatic impact,” Gilleberto said. “We believe we are going to get to that full complement, explaining that it’s not unusual at this time of year to have a few contractors who were working on a construction site last Friday whose equipment may not be ready to plow that Sunday.

“We made it work into the overnight last night and I am confident we will make it work into the overnight (Monday) night and into the morning,” the T.A. said.

As predicted, the storm finally tapered off by mid-afternoon Tuesday, giving crews plenty of time to ensure clear roads for the morning commute Wednesday. Brace yourself, it might be a long winter. Or not. It’s anyone’s guess because that is the nature of living in New England.