Monday’s snowstorm left Jackson County residents reaching for a couple of items they hadn’t found much need for this year — snow shovels and snowblowers.
The midseason storm dumped several inches of snow in the area by noon with the promise of more throughout the day and into the evening.
Gabriel Wilson of Seymour didn’t have to look far to find his shovel.
“It was right there on the porch,” he said.
Wilson said he was beginning to believe he might not need the shovel this year.
Those comments came as he shoveled a couple of inches of snow from the walk in front of his home shortly after 9 a.m.
Wilson said he was surprised at how much snow had fallen already.
“I didn’t think we were supposed to get this much,” he said.
His two daughters, Viviana, 4, and Genevieve, 2, also were surprised to wake up and see all the snow outside.
“My 4-year-old has been wanting to build a snowman and hasn’t been able to,” Gabriel Wilson said. “Now, she can.”
Some city workers, however, weren’t happy about seeing the snow.
Dave Wilson, an employee of Seymour’s Parks and Recreation Department, was supposed to have the day off for Presidents Day.
Instead, he and co-worker Dale Hayes were called out to help clear city parking lots of snow and treat them with salt.
To add insult to injury, the salt spreader on the back of the city-owned pickup they were using quit working.
“We have to do it all by hand,” Dave Wilson said.
But it just comes with the job, he added.
“We’ll be here until we’re finished,” he said.
Kim Hirtzel, with Bevers Family Pharmacy in downtown Seymour, said Monday’s snow would have meant something much different to her if it was in December.
“It would have been awesome,” she said as she completed a third round of shoveling snow and spreading salt outside of the pharmacy at 105 W. Second St.
Hirtzel said the salt and shovel have been sitting by the door to the building all winter, and she was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to be used this winter.
“Now, I’m just ready for warm weather,” she said.