With about a foot of snow blanketing Tarentum on Monday morning, Linda Gromley knew it was time to help herself.
The owner of Mackay’s Market on East Sixth Avenue grabbed a shovel, along with her daughter, Rachel, and shoveled out two parking spaces on the street in front of her business so customers had a place to park.
Like almost everywhere else in the region, Tarentum road crews were busy trying to get roads passable. Those efforts often resulted in on-street parking spots getting buried in snow, leaving nowhere for customers of businesses without access to nearby parking lots.
“We shoveled it out,” Gromley said. “My daughter and I took turns.”
The store has been operating during its regular hours despite the frigid temperatures and snowy roads.
Gromley said their work was praised by a Turner’s Dairy delivery man after they’d shoveled.
“He said it was the best job he’d seen all day,” Gromley said.
In many towns, it took a mix of snow shovel handiwork, municipal plow trucks and private contractors with backhoes and tri-axle dump trucks to bring business districts back to life.
“This storm wasn’t something you can normally prepare for, and we’re kind of all in it together,” said Neal Jones, who along with his wife owns Mz. Jones’ Curio on West Third Street in Greensburg. “I spent the past two days shoveling and clearing things out around our business. The city has their trucks and their road priorities.”
Greensburg was among municipalities that called on private crews to collect and truck snow off the street.
“It’s rough for everybody,” Jones, the Greensburg business owner, said. “I think it’s good on them for finding a way to move it out.”
Tarentum, too, has turned to heavy machinery, using Bobcats and dump trucks to remove snow from streets and sidewalks over the past couple days. The work was expected to continue into Friday.
The heavy machinery came in handy for Kirk Massart, owner of Massart’s Restaurant, also on East Sixth Avenue. He said, the first day after the snow, the borough plowed the street. Then crews came back overnight “when it didn’t affect anybody” with heavy equipment to haul the snow away.
Massart said business has been slow this week, but he isn’t blaming the snow.
“When it gets this cold and the roads get bad, people stay home,” said Massart, who noted that January weather typically means lower customer volume. By Thursday, he said borough road crews had made room for customers.
“It’s all pretty cleared off to park.”
As for the snow on the street, Massart complimented the borough’s efforts in removing the snow.
“They did a nice job,” he said.
And it isn’t just business parking. In Springdale, road crews since Wednesday have been targeting residential streets with frontloaders and dump trucks to restore onstreet parking to residents who don’t have driveways.
In Jeannette, Wilson Candies was closed the beginning of the week because of the storm and piles of snow outside the business, said Mark Lewis, who co-owns the store with Megan Wilson.
There was a foot of snow piled up outside and along the curb of Route 130, so it was difficult for customers to get to the store, Lewis said.
“We have a lot of elderly people and they couldn’t get into the store,” climbing over so much snow, Lewis said.
The chocolate candy store had one parking spot dug out in front of the store, and parking is available at a lot adjacent to the store.
Owners of businesses in downtown Irwin said that it was a combination of the snowstorm, the bitter cold temperatures and the need for the borough to remove snow from the on-street parking spaces that caused to stores to close for the beginning of the week.
Gary Santmyer, longtime owner of the Colonial Grill, a popular restaurant along Main Street in Irwin, said he closed Sunday because of the storm, then remained closed Monday and Tuesday for snow removal.
“I knew they (Irwin borough) had to remove the snow (on Tuesday) from the street. I knew the snow was never going to disappear. We had to close to let them do what they had to do,” Santmyer said.
Jen Wirsing, owner of The Green Berry, said she joined other stores in downtown Irwin in closing the beginning of the week.
“There was not really much parking,” before the snow was removed from along the street, Wirsing said. Business did pick up on Wednesday afternoon, after the morning’s bitter cold.
Wirsing was among those — likely a minority — who was not upset about the snowfall and subfreezing temperatures this week.
“We’re really having a Pittsburgh winter this year. I think it’s great for our ecosystem,” Wirsing said with a smile on her face.