As any good Western New Yorker knows, there's snow ... and there's snow.
The snow that pounded Jamestown and Western New York this weekend was of the lake-effect variety. It fell so hard and fast that by the time Monday afternoon rolled around, the National Weather Service said a full 28 inches of snow had fallen in Jamestown over the weekend. That's compared to 17 in Randolph and more than 31 in Mayville.
For Jeff Lehman, the city's public works director, heavy accumulation is nothing new. Even so, Lehman said, city crews are facing the same question they did last year - where to put it all?
''We're keeping up all right,'' Lehman said. ''But we're getting close to running out of room. It's the same story as it was last year.''
On Monday, Lehman said city crews would be clearing bridges and the downtown area overnight. The snow would be dumped on empty city-owned lots, such as the one at the corner of Clinton and Monroe streets.
''Years ago, we dumped the snow in the river - but the Department of Environmental Conservation doesn't allow for that nowadays,'' Lehman said. ''We run into that problem almost every year.''
Lehman also said it's difficult to find the necessary manpower to plow the sidewalks. The Department of Public Works has three sidewalk plow routes that follow the connector roads around each of the city schools, Lehman said. Those routes were established years ago with the assistance of school superintendents.
''We got two of those routes done (Monday) and we'll do the other one (Monday night),'' Lehman said. ''It's hard to do it sometimes because it's something we do when we've got the manpower to do it. Sometimes, it's done after we're done plowing the roads. Other times, we've got an extra man who can go out and plow the sidewalks while the streets are being done. It just depends. We do our best to maintain all three each day.''
Each year, Lehman said, plow crews run into one big problem - vehicles that aren't moved to the other side of the street by the 10 a.m. deadline.
''Every single year, we have problems with that,'' Lehman said. ''It's very normal for people to not have moved their vehicle by noon. When that happens, I've got a two-hour window where I have a full crew of plow operators but a bunch of streets they can't get down. It's a big problem, especially on the weekend.''
Jamestown has 150 miles of streets to plow and just 12 plow routes with which to do it, Lehman said. That means each route is 12.5 miles long and it can take an entire eight-hour shift to complete the entire route - more if vehicles aren't parked on the correct side of residential streets.
Lehman urged Jamestown motorists to move their vehicles by 10 a.m. each day. During winter months, cars must be parked on the even side of residential streets on even-numbered days and on the odd side of the street on odd-numbered days.
''(Monday) was a great example of cooperation, though,'' Lehman said. ''It seemed like everybody was out helping their neighbor move a vehicle or get things shoveled and brushed off. That kind of cooperation is great to see.''