Cedarhurst village plans to clean Parking Field No. 1

The snow that fell on the Five Towns caused havoc in Parking Field No. 1 in Cedarhurst, according to Mayor Andrew Parise, as the number of trucks that delivered goods to stores such as Gourmet Glatt and the number of patrons who parked parking in the lot made it difficult to move the snow.

“We can’t go around the cars and put the snow on one side of the lot,” Parise said. “We're thinking of going out at 1 to 2 a.m., when there are no cars, to plow the lot.”

Parise also said that when all of the village’s trucks are out plowing the streets, “you can’t go curb to curb because of the amount of cars on the street. We have to do down the center [of the street].”

Cedarhurst’s budget for snow cleanup is $60,000, and with this storm the village is expected to go beyond the $40,000 it has already spent this winter for plowing, shoveling and sanding, Parise said.

In Lawrence, officials said their work crews are out and continue to plow. Mayor Martin Oliner said that the village’s snow budget is $50,000, and that, prior to this storm, the village was well within that budget.

The Lawrence School District closed schools Thursday, for the second time this winter. The state allots three snow days for the year. Superintendent Gary Schall said that the after-school program would help students make up for lost instructional time, but, he added, “If we go over our allotted snow days, we will have to take away vacation days. As long as we stay within our allotted days, we're OK.”

The weather for Thursday night is forecast to be rain before 11 p.m., then snow, heavy at times. New accumulatiom could be three to five inches. Thunder is a possibility. The low temperature is expected to be 29  It will be windy with a north wind 21 to 31 mph beco,ming northwest agter midnight. On Friday, it wll be sunny with a high near 40 with a west wind of 18 to 22 mph, according to the National Weather Service.