Cleanup from Latest Snowfall Ongoing, Will Take Days to Clear

By Christina Georgiou

Residents shovel out cars on Ferry Street in Easton's West Ward
Thursday afternoon. Snowfall in excess of 12 inches, on top of previous
snow already on the ground, has left huge piles of snow all over the city,
which officials say workers will be working on removing well into next week.

The latest official snow emergency declaration ended this afternoon, but it will take days to clean up from the latest storm to hit the city and surrounding area, but workers will be working daily until the job is done--probably some time next week--Easton city officials say.

"I think the operation is going well," said Easton Public Works Director David Hopkins. "The crew has all of the streets passable at this point, at least all of the roadways that they were able to get through." 

Cars parked along streets that are not designated snow emergency routes make it harder for plows to do their job, but city officials realize that parking options are limited in some areas. They're also reminding residents that shoveled snow should not be thrown back into the street.

"Obviously on the side streets with on-street parking there is decreasing space to store snow; however, we still cannot have it thrown back into the street," Hopkins said.  "This is a real problem, especially with lower temperatures and re-freezing."

The city will be carting some of the snow away to clear more room, beginning Friday, he said.

"When we remove snow, we cannot dump it into the river so we store it at various locations throughout the city (where they can melt slowly)," Hopkins said. Snow will be moved to a parking lot along Lehigh Drive, the Hackett Park parking lot, Eddyside Park parking lot, and Heil parking lot, as well as other locations as city workers, aided by workers from private local firms contracted by the city, relocated small mountains of snow from city streets.