Excessive Winter Storms Take Toll on Local Businesses

The seemingly endless rounds of snow and ice this winter have had varying degrees of impact on local businesses and government entities.

When asked how the severe weather affected her restaurant business, Linda Orfino owner of was quick to respond—“It was horrible.”

“It has been an atrocious winter and our business was half what is usually expected,” she added. “The school winter break didn’t help either since, with schools closed, people went away. There just wasn’t as much business.”

Orfino continued, “People are not afraid of snow, but they just don’t go out in the ice.”

manager Patty Irwin concurred, “It was mostly the parking lot that was the problem, you can only shovel so much and the snow built up.”

The subsequently “limited parking was a major deterrent for business.”

proprietor Vinnie Janiello relayed a different story.

When asked how repeated storms impacted his sales, Janiello responded, “It was really very interesting. People would load up [on food] the day before the snow, but it would be slow the day of the snowstorm. We were off, but really not by much…sometimes people stocked up on more than they needed.”

Citing the swift response of the village Janiello said, “The town did a great job of getting rid of the snow. They piled into large piles and carted it away in the evenings. The town was really on top of it.”

Back in Pleasantville, Roy Solomon of the , expressed concerns about his business.

“There really was an impact. January was way down compared to the previous year. We thought people had stopped buying books and moved to e-books totally… and that the end was near.”

However, after discussing the severe downturn with neighboring retailer, Matt Jaros of , Solomon learned that Glass Onion’s revenues were down by a similar percentage.

Roy did, however, experience some relief.

“That made both of us feel better; that we were not made obsolete by the internet and e-books," he revealed.

Barry Schwartz, owner of , had less to be worried about.

"We were slightly up in January since a major competitor recently closed. February has been up also," he said.

Also pleased with the effectiveness of snow removal Schwartz continued, “The Pleasantville did an incredible job clearing and plowing. They came in with trucks to cart snow away so parking was made available and people could get around much easier.”

Schwarz also echoed the observations of Janiello, reporting that people came in earlier to shop for upcoming parties when they knew a storm was coming.

Schwartz also noted locals seemed to have “developed a Vermont mentality."

“People weary of winter ventured out anyway since they were sick of the storms. Ice is a different story," he explained. "Their attitude is, ‘another snow storm?’ Not a big deal.”

How did the public sector fare? 

Vivian Gufarotti, assistant library director at the said, “Basically I can’t say that our numbers are off, we have been pretty much on target with where we were last year. Similar to consumers stocking up on food prior to a storm, Gufarotti observed, “We tend to find that when people can’t get to the library because we are closed due to weather, they are here the next day.”

When asked about salt usage and impact to village finances, Edward Torhan, Briarcliff Manor’s Superintendent of responded, “We usually plan for 12-14 storms, and typically use 100 tons of salt per storm. We use it sparingly. It’s a big budget item for the village, so we drill it into our guys to use it carefully.”

Overtime hasn’t been unmanageable either. “We just went over what we spent last year,” said Torhan. “This year, many storms fell on regular workdays, so we had the men on site, and that helped. Had the storms hit more on weekends, we would have had more of a problem.”

At the last Board of Trustees meeting, Briarcliff Manor Village Manager Philip Zegarelli revealed the village is approximately $10,000 over budget in terms of overtime pay, but the salt supply is still plentiful.

"We have about 350 tons left there," he said, adding salt typically costs the village around $70 per ton.

Apparently it’s a storm quality, not quantity that drives cost.

As Torhan pointed out, “It’s not the number of storms, but the severity, that impacts our labor use.”

Although winter isn’t over, March traditionally brings less ice and snow.

And, as Torhan optimistically commented, “We had 10 storm last year, and we’re almost at the end of storm season.”

Most likely, we can all agree with Orfino’s final comment, “Hopefully spring is right around the corner.”