photo by: Derek Redd

Erica Siburt, left, and Amanda Ross dig themselves out of the snow that had covered Seventh Street in Martins Ferry after the weekend’s winter storm passed through the Ohio Valley.

After this past weekend’s winter storm, Belmont County officials are coming together to ensure residents’ safety.

Belmont County Sheriff James Zusack took to social media Monday morning to share that he had lowered the county’s emergency level from level 3 to level 2. A level 2 emergency means that roadways are hazardous with blowing and drifting snow. Only those who feel it is necessary to drive should be out on the roadways.

Zusack added that although the county is now on a level 2 emergency level there is an extreme cold warning in effect until 11 a.m. on Tuesday.

“Dress in layers including a hat, face mask, and gloves if you must go outside,” he posted. “To prevent water pipes from freezing; wrap, drain, or allow them to drip slowly.”

Zusack added that residents must keep their pets indoors as much as possible.

Martins Ferry Mayor John Davies said that not only the city’s street department, but every department has come together since Saturday night to work around the clock to ensure the streets are drivable.

“It’s all of our departments. When it snows, everybody pitches in. We have people from the street department and the water department and these guys are all experienced. Their dedicated experience makes our job so much easier,” Davies said. “We’ve been running 24 hours a day since Saturday morning, and these guys make it look easy, but it’s really not all that easy.”

He added that the city employees are incredibly dedicated.

“We’re going to keep everything open, especially for emergency services. That’s our main priority,” Davies said. “It’s our job to maintain the roads to the best of our ability. I’m really proud of the way our guys have handled their equipment. I mean, by the time you do all the streets, alleys, and everything else, there’s 39 miles in the city. So we were able to get them open and keep them open, I don’t really hear a lot of people complaining.”

He added that the biggest worry is people throwing snow into the street after the city cleans the street, and creating a hazard. To combat residents shoveling snow from their driveway into the road Davies, said that he’s told his employees to dump the snow back where it came from when cleaning the streets.

St. Clairsville Mayor Kathryn Thalman said that she wants to inform older residents to be careful when shoveling snow.

“Be very careful because the hospitals are preparing for heart attacks. People are lifting big shovels of snow. This is wet snow and very heavy and people have heart attacks. So please be prudent,” Thalman said. “I’d encourage any neighborhood kids that need some cash to go out and shovel a bunch. Because this is the kind of snow that a kid can lift but an older person shouldn’t.”

She added that like Davies she is incredibly proud of her city’s employees who have been working around the clock since Saturday.

“I’m proud of all of them, because, knock on wood, we haven’t had a water break and our electric guys worked all summer to keep branches down so we wouldn’t have any electricity out. And we haven’t had electric out yet, knock on wood,” Thalman said. “Our street guys worked all night to get the streets as good as they are. And while they’re not perfect yet, they’ve done a Herculean job of getting them to where they’re passable. And they’re still out working and have been going 24 hours.”

She added that residents have been contacting her asking if the city has a warming center, which it does not.

“Unfortunately, in order to have a warming center, you have to have a generator and we do not have a generator at the Rec Center. You also have to have cots, showers, a nurse there if you have people having to take meds at night and you have to have obviously soap, blankets, towels, food, and a fully functional kitchen which we do not have,” Thalman said.

Unlike St. Clairsville, Bellaire was not as lucky with water breaks. A water main broke Sunday night at 3rd and Elm streets. Bellaire Mayor Robert Dodrill said that the water break was fixed and the area currently has a 48-hour boil order.

Dodrill added that ICR donated two skidsteers to the village to help move snow.

“They’ve been awesome and I appreciate it. So has the fire department, they’ve all been out here helping,” Dodrill said. “Everybody’s pitching in and this is what I’ve always dreamed of.”

Shadyside Mayor Mike Meintel said that his four-man service department crew was out from 3 a.m. until 9 p.m. on Sunday.

“They hit all of the roads several times in the village and tomorrow we will do touch up plowing throughout the village,” Meintel said. “Our crew had to fight the snow, freezing temperatures and equipment that kept breaking down. I’m very proud of our service department crew: Mike Difabrizio, Jim Palmer, Darren Moore and Zeke Merryman.”

He urged residents to respect the village’s designated snow routes.

“If residents park on these designated snow routes, it prevents our plows from getting into those areas,” Meintel said. “This was a very large storm, major airports throughout our nation that have the best snow removal equipment in the world, could not keep up with this storm.