Township Public Works Crew Continues to Clear Roads Post-Snow Event

The district's first snow day of the year gave students an extra day of Presidents Day weekend vacation and the public works crew with quite a handful. 

“We almost got through this winter without a closing," said district communications coordinator, Shelly Belcher. "I guess we have been lucky so far.”

Seven inches of snow fell between 4 p.m. Monday through midnight, according to Pittsburgh's National Weather Service in Moon Township.

“Hey, Phil was right on. We’re starting to see more sunlight and this snow is going to start melting pretty fast,” meteorologist John Darnley said Tuesday morning, after tracking the storm all evening. “Spring is right around the corner.”

As the snow fell fast, township road crews were held over at the end of their normal shifts and continued to work until about 9-9:30 p.m., according to Township Manager Michael Silvestri.

"As you know the snow event was quite a bit more than predicted," he said. "Two trucks were on duty throughout the night to handle the main roads and emergencies."

According to Silvestri, the entire crew was back on the road by 4 a.m.

"I feel the roads were pretty cleared by 9 a.m.," he said. "The crew will continue to work throughout the day to open up areas that are narrow."

Monday evening, students utilized social media waiting to hear for a delay, not necessarily expecting a closing.

“I saw several postings on Facebook last night of people wondering when the ‘call from Shelly Belcher’ would come through for the delay,” said Belcher.

"Our make-up day will be Thursday, April 21," she said. "Parents can view all make-up dates on the school calendar on the website.”

So what to expect today? Darnley said just take a gander outside now.

“Just what you see is what you’ll get,” Darnley said. “It’s beautiful.”

He said to expect temperatures to stay in the low 30s today before they slide down to about 11 degrees overnight. Wednesday is expected to be cold -- we're talking mid-20s and 30s.

The mercury will rise Thursday and Friday, when the region will see milder temperatures in the 40s. But don’t get too excited, he said, there is a 70 percent chance of rain Thursday into Friday.

The sun is shining and it looks like our first snow day event is coming to a close.

"All in all, I believe the event was well-handled, but it’s the residents' opinions that matter and I would welcome their comments," said Silvestri.

In addition to an e-mail blast, a call to all parents, posts on local news channels and the district cable channel, as well as news sites (including Patch!) the Peters Township School District posts delays and closing on their Facebook and Twitter pages as well. If you're not already following, be sure to do so.

Canon-McMillan Patch Editor Amanda Gillooly contributed to this report.