Pocono News Section

Snow Slows Work Commute, School Day

Snow Slows Work Commute, School Day - Friday, January 8, 2010 at 12:10PM EST

Reported by: Mark Hiller
Friday, Jan 8, 2010 @ 12:10pm EST
WAYMART, WAYNE COUNTY - Slick travel conditions Friday morning caused a slow ride to work for many and a shortened class day for nearly 100 area schools.

A mini snow plow got quite a workout Friday morning at R. D. Wilson Elementary School in Waymart.
The man doing the job is James Romance of Waymart who's a Western Wayne School District Employee.
"I've already cleared this once but gotta get 'er going before the teachers come in," said Romance.
And it's more than a one-man job. Romance had help as a pick-up truck plowed the parking lot for teachers and staff.
"Can't hold them back. They want to do their job," said Romance. "I've got to get mine done."

As any student or parent knows, it doesn't take a lot of snow to make a big mess of a school schedule. Yet, that's what happened again in districts like the Western Wayne School District. It began the day on a 2-hour delay.
That kept teachers like Darren Thorpe out of the classroom by a couple hours.
"We'll have to adjust for that 'cause you want to try and get as much teaching time in as you can but you're on a shortened day," said Thorpe.
In the meantime, the Western Wayne Middle School 8th grade Social Studies teacher got up early to clean off both his car and his wife's and clear the sidewalks at his Waymart home.
He doesn't really mind the snow.
"I'm all right with it," Thorpe said chuckling. "My wife kind of hates it but I kind of like it."

It's a bigger snow cleanup job at Waymart Building Center on South Street..
Even though this is a small snowfall, it took a couple of hours for Kevin Dennis to clear the front and back of the business. Still, that's easy compared to so many other snowstorms.
"You could be here all day if it keeps snowing," laughed Dennis. "So it just depends on the amount of snow and how long it snows, I guess."

Bigger snowstorms probably like ahead of us this season, so hang in there -- we still have 10-more weeks of winter and if previous winters on average are any indication, we can expect a couple more feet of snow within the next couple of months.