FARMINGTON — Snowblowers, plows, shovels and scoops were used Wednesday morning to move more than a foot of snow dumped by Tuesday’s nor’easter.
According to the National Weather Service website for the Gray office, Farmington received 19 inches; Eustis, 18; and New Sharon, 15½.
Thomas Cormier, 9, of New Sharon was using a snow scoop to help his father, Thomas, and younger brother, Oliver, remove snow from a driveway at an apartment house the family owns on Middle Street in Farmington.
The younger Thomas said he loved snow.
“I like snowboarding. I like skiing. I like to play with my dog in the snow. I like shoveling,” he said. “It’s fun.”
The start of school was delayed by two hours in Regional School Unit 9 in the Farmington area. Other school districts had also delayed openings. RSU 9 has used seven snow days and will make up one of those with half a day of classes Friday, instead of having a scheduled day off for a teachers workshop.
The eldest Cormier said he was fine with the snow.
“We love to ski,” he said. “It is nice to have fresh snow … The sun will melt it soon enough,” he said.
Bob Daggett, a Farmington Public Works Department employee, cleared snow from a sidewalk with a sidewalk plow on North Main Street. It was slow going for some of the deepest areas. At times, the machine was going through 6 feet of snow, he said.
An 80-year-woman in Jay who has lived in Maine her entire life said she takes the snow in stride. She was removing snow from around her garage.
“It’s part of living in Maine,” said the woman, who did not wish to have her name published. “I love the change of seasons. I’m lucky I don’t have to get up and go to work.”
Nick Palmer, facilities manager for Franklin County government, was removing snow that was plowed against the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.
“I am trying to keep up with it,” he said as he scooped snow from near the window area of Sheriff Scott Nichols Sr.’s office.
Sometimes it is a challenge to keep up with the snow and clearing it away from the buildings, he said. His priority is the Franklin County Courthouse on Main Street.
His assistant, Dick Chabot, clears the entrances at the Sheriff’s Office, Franklin County Regional Communications Center and the Franklin County District Attorney’s Office.
When Palmer is done with the courthouse, he helps Chabot. They clear the emergency exits and other places that need snow removed.
dperry@sunmediagroup.net
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