Bedfordtimesregister.com - Crews dig out residents, communities from snow

by Emily Canning-Dean

Reporter

Northeast Ohio seemed more like the frozen tundra as some areas received 2 feet of snow between March 7 and 9.

According to the National Weather Service, Cuyahoga County had between 13 and 25 inches of snow on the ground by March 9.

Roads were treacherous but residents area business owners and city workers made the best of the snowy situation.

Bedford Service Director Clint Bellar said his crews worked 12-hour shifts the night of March 7 through the afternoon of March 9 using 350 hours of overtime.

"We plowed every road and tried to get the main drags every three to four hours," Bellar said. "We didn't use a lot of salt because there seemed to be no sense in it, knowing more snow was coming."

Bedford Heights Service Director Nick Baucco said his crews also worked 12-hour shifts using 291 hours of overtime.

"We used a minimal amount of salt just in some of the more dangerous areas," he said. "It was one of the worst storms we've seen in the last couple of years."

Oakwood Service Director Tom Haba said his six-man crew each worked about 24 hours of overtime clearing all of the village's roads.

Haba said the crew was finished clearing the roads by early March 9, but continued working by clearing out the driveways of senior citizens.

Norm Vana, manager of Zeppe's Pizza, 320 Broadway Avenue, Bedford, said the restaurant stopped delivering pizzas March 8 at 3 p.m.

"We stayed open for pick-ups until 9 p.m., but some of the customers got their vehicles stuck in our parking lot," Vana said. "By about 8:30 p.m. we noticed that orders started to slow down, so we closed. We normally stay open until midnight."

Bob Hotchkiss, owner of Bedford Floral, 691 Broadway Avenue, said he made all of his deliveries over the weekend.

"We didn't have that many," Hotchkiss said. "Most of the deliveries were off of main roads and they were kept pretty clear."

Margaret Bierman, communications coordinator for Bedford Schools, said Bedford High School canceled its March 8 showing of the musical, "The Wiz." But she said the students will perform on March 14 and 15 as planned.

"I was told that the audience for the March 7 show was as large as it is for most of our opening nights," Bierman said.

Jim Filipic, manager at Teresa's Pizza, 5882 Lee Road, Maple Heights, said as the storm intensified March 8, management decided to put a hold on food deliveries.

"We were expecting it to be slow because of the storm," Filipic said.

But even with the snow and no delivery service, Filipic said, "It was actually pretty busy."

"There were a lot of pick-up orders," he said.

And he said while the blustery conditions may have kept a few orders from being called in, "all-in-all we were pretty close to our normal [level of food made]."

But at least one local business was forced to stay closed March 8 because employees could not get to work.

"We were closed and we got hammered," said Mark Sashko, owner of Broadway Dunham Lanes bowling alley, 15750 Broadway Ave., Maple Heights. "I could not get people here and I lost a lot of revenue."

Sashko said he had at least one party scheduled which had to be canceled because of the storm.

E-mail: ecanning@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3166