Royal Purple

Issue date: 2/13/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Alison Wisneski A bike is covered in snow from last Wednesday's record breaking snowstorm.

Sub Zero temperatures and record snowfalls continued to plague Whitewater during the first part of February.

As of Tuesday, 77.3 inches of snow entered the history books replacing the 1979 record of 76.1 inches.

Whitewater was in a snow emergency for 35 hours and experienced strong winds with approximately 14 inches of snow on Feb. 6, causing the university, public schools, and many local businesses to shut their doors.

Sophomore Jeremy Jansen ventured out in last week's near blizzard to finish a project in the Center of the Arts.

"The snow was stinging my face," Jansen said. "It was a pain, we had to move our cars from Wells because of the shoveling and I got plowed in."

University Building and Grounds Supervisor Steven Bertagnolli was out with a plowing crew of about 13 people and 10 plows clearing campus pathways and parking lots from 3 a.m. Wednesday into early Thursday morning. The crew was responsible for 15 miles of sidewalks, which must get plowed twice to clear completely, and 55 acres of parking lots. Some crew members even had to hand shovel handicap stalls, stairs and other places the Bobcats and front-end loaders can't reach.

"I worked two and a half days straight, plus nights," he said.

He also said the paths and roadways had to be constantly plowed since they were covered in snow within five minutes. Generally snow removal takes Bertagnolli's crew five hours, but in this case, it took seven hours to move the snow from all parking lots and pathways.

City Manager Kevin Brunner said the city snow removal crew worked 15 hour shifts from midnight to 3 p.m. both Wednesday and Thursday.

"I think we weathered it really well," he said. "I think our public works crew did a phenomenal job keeping up with everything as best they could."

Interim Chancellor Richard Telfer discussed the weather with Interim Provost John Heyer the day before, watched weather forecasts and made judgments on what would happen during the day of the storm. The final decision to cancel classes was made at 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Brunner said he decided to close City Hall at 3:30 p.m. because of the amount of snow he found piled on top his car after only an hour of being parked. The Whitewater Post Office was also closed and did not deliver any mail.

However, Whitewater's delivering restaurants found the storm as a money earning opportunity.

"When the weather gets that bad people want to stay home and have [the food] come to them," Topper's Manager Matt Ziemann said. "It's good for our drivers; they make a lot more money."

While Ziemann said many of his drivers had to rely on strangers to help push their cars out of snow banks, Frosty's Manager Kieth Staebler took his four-wheel drive, Ram truck on deliveries and "kept right on going."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools