Area residents were still digging out in some areas from a huge snow system that dumped up to 18 inches in some parts of the Chicago area, creating super headaches on Super Bowl Sunday.
The continued snow and roads in need of plowing led most area school districts to close for Monday, including Hinsdale High School District 86, Lyons Township High School District 204 and most of their feeder districts.
People shoveled over several shifts from Sunday morning to Monday to try and keep up with the more than foot of snow that fell on the Chicago area.
Lisa Sobecki of Hinsdale said they were out clearing snow three times Feb. 1.
She estimates about 15 inches of snow fell by her house on Phllippa Street.
At about 9 p.m., she left her home to pick up her son at a friend’s house on Ravine Road and then go to a house on The Lane.
The roads were bad, Sobecki said. “You knew no way there was going to be school.” Her husband, who did most of the shoveling, left on a flight the next morning from O’Hare Airport to San Francisco.
“He was supposed to leave at 8:40 a.m.,” Sobecki said, but that flight was cancelled. “He’s on a 1 o’clock flight,” she said.
It was all hands on deck for the seven-member Public Works crew in LaGrange Park with assists from firefighters and police in clearing snow from the first major storm of 2015, reported Public Works Director Brendan McLaughlin.
Crews have worked 16-hour shifts since the night of Jan. 31and continued salting and scraping operations Feb. 2, McLaughlin said. Police and firefighters assisted by clearing the parking lots around Village Hall, and one firefighter drove a plow, he said.
In La Grange, all 53 miles of village streets have been cleared with crews working nonstop since Jan. 31, said Public Works Director Ryan Gillingham.
“Certainly the volume of snow presented a challenge, and we had a few equipment breadkowns duringthe event that slowed us down, but eventually we got everything open in time for the morning commute,” Gillingham said.
Operations are focused now on clearing sidewalks and lots in the downtown area and hauling excess snow to the former Rich Port YMCA lot at Ogden Avenue and La Grange Road.
In Western Springs, Matt Supert, director of municipal services, said crews focused Feb. 2 on plowing the remainder of residential and side streets. Efforts then will shift to clearing the downtown business district.
“Parking may be limited in the central business district until we can remove the snow,” Super said. “We are asking that residents please not to park on streets for the next 24 hours.”
Fire Department officials is several towns asked residents to clear the area around fire hydrants.
Communities also reported garbage pickup scheduled this week by Allied Waste/Republic Services would be delayed a day to allow for snow removal.
George Peluso, Hinsdale’s director of public services, said by 12:30 p.m. Monday, the main and secondary roads were all passable. His crews were working on clearing snow from cul-de-sacs and alleys, he said.
With Hinsdale public schools closed, many children spent their snow day sledding on local sled hills.
By noon Feb. 2, 8-year-old Josh Dobrovolny of Westmont had gone down the hill at Park Avenue Park in Clarendon Hills 25 times.
“I grew up sledding on this hill,” said his mother, JoAnn Dobrovolny.
She pointed to a trail of footprints leading out about 200 feet from the foot of the sledding hill.
Her son walked out there to a little ridge and then over it, into snow he said was like quicksand, he said.
“He and a little girl walked out there,” Dobrovolny said. “But she lost her boot out there. Her mother took her home. So there was drama.”
Brothers Riley, 12, and Nolan Ford, 9, of Hinsdale had sledded down the hill in Park Avenue Park about 15 times, and Nolan planned to go down 30 more times.
Going down was easy, the climb back up was a little harder.
“The snow is deep and hard to walk through.”
Kaitlyn Nolan, 12, came to the Clarendon Hills sled hill with her father and 10-year-old brother. She liked the Park Avenue Hill because it had a designated walkway on the north side of the hill up to the top.
“It’s safer because you don’t crash into people on the way down,” Kaitlyn said.
