Untitled
: WINNING THE FIGHT _ A four-wheel drive truck wit"!!, ' ~lid toward the center of the road because of the figlit the
,\ front and wing plows of the Town of Wappinger Wednes- piled snow w,as giving. Riding behind this plow but not
J" dJY afternon succeeded in widening Osbofne Hill Rd. sO shown in the picture was another truck with a kont plow
'tllat two vehicles could pass. Since the storm, drifting snow operated by Bdb Crosbier with Jim Knight operllting the
bJocked off this county highway, allowing only space for plows. Bott. vehicles were able to widen the road but crews
QIle vehicle. Ken Croshier, the driver, and Gary 'Hinn- were expected tn be back today i~ another attempt to get
'dchs, plow operator, encountered difficulty in trying to the piled snoW back furtber. As these plows were at work
push bacl, the snow, drifted from seven to 10 feet. As the on one-imd of the hill the Town of Fishkill tru~k was giv-
plow. crawled up the Nil on the Wappinger side, its rear ing an assist at the Fishkill side. (Photo by McCloskey)
Rural Areas Win Fight\Seeks Falls
,A gainst Drifti~
" ~.'
Dutchess County and area town
highway departments on Wednes-
day, afternoon fillally won their
battle against the record-sh~tter-
ing 18 inch weekend blizzard,
Dutchess COUllty Highway Sup\lr-
mtcnc1ellt .cu~~,_ Q'}lrien 'said
oWlnglme a:btlllit' snow wasn't a
bad task but giving the plowing
crews hardship was the gale-like
n'orth-northwest winds that blew in
after the storm abated late Sun-
day afternoon,
Mr, O'Brien said that the wind
made poor visibility for the plow
crews, He said, "they couldn't see
very fa~ ahead and sometimes
they had to stop when snow com-
pletely blocked their view,"
"Generally," Mr. O'Brien said,
"all county roads are in pretty
good shape." He said the problem
harassing county highway crews
was in the Town of North East
where sever'al roads were com-
pletely blocked because of the se-
vere drifting.
Use Snow Blower ("
He said it was necessary to put
the county's snow blower to work
in that section on Tuesday after-
noon. "It did a pretty good job,"
the highway engineer said. He
estimated that the after-the-storm
~'inds in that vicinity moved along
at between' 40 and 50 miles an
hour creating serious drifting.
ApproximatelY 94 plows operated
in the county outside of the cities
of Beacon 'and Poughkeepsie and
the Towns of Poughkeepsie and
LaGrange, Mr. O'Brien reported.
He said the county used 22 of its
own plows and about 18 towns use
about four plows each. The state'
pays the county for plowing the
main highways and the county also
arranges with most of the towns
to plow county and,. in some
laces, state highwa .
<" sa e was UI e
a lot of snow." Mr. O'Brien said
lit was very dry and light ~hicl1,
made p low i n g comparatlvely,
easy. He said the northeast-e~st
sections of the county had freez\l1g
rain and sleet before the beginning
of the severe weekend snowfall. .
Most roads, Mr. O'Brien. ex-
plained, were dry before the stor~
hit the area and because of thl~
plows could scrape it right dO~1l
to the pavement. Most of the malll
roads were almost complet~l~;
clear of snow on Tuesday UlOrll1~~,
but in many places they were. no
plowed the normal width, .
Mr, O'Brien said crews of h1
department were able to keep ztl
highways open even during tn
height of the blizzard, which h
said was the 'worst since 1947. H
said even before the new',weekeq'
snoW there were drifts up to niy!
feet in the Town of North Ea~
The snow blower was operated i.
that area last week, he said. ,
By today Mr. O'Brien said 1;1,
roads would be in good shape b
crews would be busy for the ne,
few days trying to widen some \ .
them. A
Virgil Knight, Superintendent' .
Highways in the Town of Wapp1'
gel', said at noon yesterda.y t11
l'all our roads are open, \11 !1l
they were open as of Tuesda}\'
He said the very bad drifting S~
_ day night, Monday and Tues \
gave considerable amount of elit
_ work to his forces . '
s Notes Trouble spots .
Although all roads are ope~,: ~
,
Knight said, "they are not as WIl
as they should be but, eventual!
we will have that problem licked.'
He said the steep ,Wheeler Hil1 Rd.
and roads in Academy Acres were
the real trouble suots in the town
sy~tem of 4i~lj " fIetl~~i'l j Pfl'
ellipse of the n ss ~ sOllle
tD'n'ro~ds "we ; a 'probtem
w,re:P' He said t nks of ~now
on either side of n roads are
up so higb that pu g them back
c:eates a problem:, s "there is no
place to push thelsnow."
His forces were)llut. almost con-
tinuously since thjy:.first went to
work late Saturday night. The
county roads plowed. out by the
Town of Wappingj!r 'ididn't give us
too much trouble as.there is some
room to push the snow bacll," he
explained.
Of the county roads ,plowed by
his equipment Osborne Hill was
the most troublesome, Mr. l{night
said. He was forced to send his
largest piece of equipment, a four-
wheel d~'ive truck with wing plow
attached, to Osborne Hill on
Wednesday afternoon to lick the
badly drifted sections. Up until
Wednesday some parts of Osborne
Hill were only wide enough for
one-way travel. Drifts on the Wap-
pinger side of this road are .easilY
seven to 10 feet high.
Through arrangement with the
County Highway Department, the
\Town of Wappinger plows the en-
I tire length of Osborne Hill al-
though a considerable part of it
lies in the Town of Wappinger. A~
(Continued on Page 2)