Borough Streets Were Among the Best During Snowstorm, Councilman Says

The Hellertown Public Works Department drew high praise Monday for its work treating and clearing borough roads of eight inches of snow during a freak winter storm last week.

At a council meeting, borough council president Tom Rieger said other municipalities failed while Hellertown’s road crews excelled in their response to the storm.

“It seemed you couldn’t go anywhere in the Lehigh Valley, but once you got to Hellertown you were fine,” Rieger said, referring to the gridlock that paralyzed motorists in Bethlehem and beyond, and turned routine brief commutes into epic snowbound journeys that in some cases lasted 10 hours or more.

Officially the storm dropped a record-breaking 8.1 inches of snow at Lehigh Valley International Airport, making it the greatest snowfall from a single November storm in nearly a century. National Weather Service records in Allentown date back to 1922.

Resident Melody Smith agreed with Rieger, posting a comment on the borough’s Facebook page in which she wrote that the Hellertown road crews did “a great job during the snow Thursday. I’m told on my other thank you post that while people took hours to get home, when they got to Hellertown all was clear, except 412, which is PennDOT.”

“It was a weird storm, but good job,” Rieger said to public works director Tom Henshaw. “Hopefully we’ll never get that snow that early again.”

In other business at the meeting, newly-appointed borough councilman Andrew Hughes was sworn into office by mayor David Heintzelman.

Hughes was appointed to fill the unexpired term of former councilman Kevin Lott, who resigned his seat upon his appointment to Northampton County Council.

The next and most likely final borough council meeting of the year will be held Monday, Dec. 3 at 7 p.m. at Hellertown Borough Hall, 685 Main St., Hellertown. Meetings are open to the public and meeting agendas are published in advance on the borough’s website.