Storm Incidents Pick Up

While incidents have been minor, emergency officials have responded to a few spinouts, cars off road and minor accidents in the past couple of hours. 

“Hopefully the temperature will keep coming up,” Deputy Police Chief Donald Hull said. 

He said the roads are a little slippery and advises those who can, stay home but realizes many are coming home from work. 

“Hopefully people drive slowly and take their time going home,” Hull said. 

As the precipitation turns more to rain, Public Works Crews can really begin cleaning up, removing slush and treating the roads, he said. 

The National Weather Service is calling for continued freezing rain for the evening, patchy fog and lows in the mid 20s. 

Earlier in the day, the town chose to leave some snow cover down so ice would not stick to the roads. 

The town also received a bit of a break as the storm does not appear to be leaving as much ice as originally thought. 

Mid afternoon, Connecticut Light and Power reported 332 outages in the state but that number had jumped to more than 1,400 as of 4:30 p.m. None, however, are reported in the immediate area.

Schools were closed Tuesday but many kept working throughout the storm. 

At , business was a little slow due to the weather but that’s expected, owner Dan Carcio said. 

“It slows business down but it is winter in New England,” Carcio said. 

While it is often busier the afternoon before a storm, the station generally comes out on the losing end, doing about a day-and-a-half’s worth of business in a two-day period. 

Some repair work tends to get rescheduled but there is generally enough to keep busy. During the last storm, for example, four out of five scheduled employees were working, mostly on cars that were already in the business’ lot scheduled for work. 

“We had enough residual work to keep the boys rolling,” Carcio said. 

The scene was similar Tuesday as several cars occupied the garage bays. 

Other businesses remained opened, including banks, ACE Hardware, post offices, many restaurants and others. 

While school and all related activities were canceled by early Tuesday, Town Hall was set to stay open until 4:30 p.m., Chief Administrative Officer Robert Skinner said. 

At this time the Board of Finance and the Hydro Project Advisory Committee meetings set for tonight are still scheduled to happen.

The Board of Ethics meeting has been postponed until tomorrow evening. 

An overnight parking ban on town streets remains in effect. 

Skinner said the town is keeping an eye out for any power outages and could keep the community center, which is equipped with an emergency generator, open late if necessary. 

“If we had enough homes without power, we would consider opening up the shelter,” he said. 

Earlier in the day, Skinner said some people were calling about snow on the roads but he and Public Works Director Robert Martin that the town wanted to leave a little snow down so the ice did not stick to the roadways as readily. 

As of early afternoon police reported no accidents and one disabled vehicle earlier in the day although activity increased after 3 p.m. 

Chief Christopher G. Arciero said the department, like others in town, was keeping an eye on the weather. 

“We do have our concerns, obviously, about the icy road conditions that may occur,” Arciero said. 

Public Works Crews remain on the job and began their day at 3 a.m.