MILFORD & NORTH HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — The storm expected on Saturday comes on one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Many stores are opening early for holiday shoppers. Crews will be making sure the roads and parking lots are safe. Most roads and parking lots across the area have been pretreated as a precaution.
The day before the storm is always a busy one for crews. Chris Saley is the Director of Public Works for the City of Milford. He says they are ready for whatever Mother Nature brings.
“We also went out and pretreated the roads with a salt and molasses mix that we use,” said Saley. “What it does is it makes sure that when the snow hits the ground that it doesn’t freeze – it actually melts.”
The City of Milford got a new plow. Its shape is different from what the department already has. Crews will be testing it out for the first time on Saturday morning.
“We have 21 plow routes in the city so we’ll have close to 21 trucks out,” said Saley.
Parking lots are another concern with this expected storm. It is the last weekend before Christmas, and stores like The Home Depot in North Haven are expecting to be busy. The store will open at 6 a.m. Saturday. It hires a company to keep the parking lot clear.
“Once the snow starts falling they’ll be here servicing the parking lot because the safety of our customers is utmost – making sure people can get here safely,” said Store Manager Kelly Presti.
The store is ready for snow inside too. It has essentials like shovels, ice melt and snow blowers in stock. Presti is expecting the aisles to be full of people finishing up – or maybe just beginning – their holiday shopping.
“We’re expecting we’ll probably get a lot of people coming in for their Christmas decorations, last minute Christmas decorations, as well as last minute shoppers,” said Presti.
Since the storm is expected on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, crews are making sure they stay ahead of it.
“With a storm like this coming at night we like to get out especially during the holiday season and pretreat,” said Saley.
Departments of public works are busy even after the storm is over. Saley says it takes them about an hour to clean each truck.
