Snow Hampering Newtown Borough Parking

After last week’s winter storm, Newtown Borough exported about 100 truckloads of snow to clear State Street and make parking available in the business district. The Borough Council on Wednesday decided to continue that process in the event of another major snow event.

The decision to do additional snow removal, which comes with a price tag of about $10,000, was not made lightly, Borough Council President Julia Woldorf said.  “It is an added expense,” she said.

“It seems like weather patterns are repetitious. We could very well see one or two more storms of the same magnitude,” Woldorf said, adding she wanted to get a feel from the rest of council if the procedure should be protocol in a major snow event.

“It is obviously a significant budget expense,” Woldorf said. “It’s a decision that’s sometimes made in the middle of the night or on the weekend.”

The council concurred that to protect public safety and to enable the business district to function properly, snow should be removed if it is blocking travel and minimizing parking.

Council member Mike Sellers said he was involved in last week's decision to truck out the snow. He said it needed to be done because it’s a basic issue of public safety. After normal plowing had been done, the width of State Street was eight feet in some places, Sellers said.

“We all know State Street is very much the life blood of not only the business district but the town. If we wanted to have any parking on State Street and avoid problem of sideswipes, it had to be done.  It worked out well and it kept things open.”

All told, Sellers said the cost of trucking out the snow from the streets and borough municipal lots was $10,000.

Also during Wednesday’s council meeting, the borough engineer gave an update on FEMA's revised flood insurance maps. Municipalities had a 30-day review period to address nontechnical changes to the proposed FEMA flood maps. The 30-day review period expired at the end of January.

Engineer Maryellen Saylor said FEMA was unclear about the exact location of the borough’s boundary line. Saylor was authorized by council to follow up on FEMA’s requests for a digital zoning map.

The approval process for the FEMA flood maps is still at the beginning stages, Woldorf said. “There are a couple more reviews before these become adopted,” she said.