By Dawn De Busk

Staff Writer

RAYMOND — While a white Christmas might be a delight to many, it added up to a 12-hour workday for area plowers.

“It has been about 10 or 12 years since we have had a full storm on Christmas,” said Nathan White, the director of the Raymond Public Works Department.

He recalled going out on Christmas Day in years past to do small jobs such as some sanding and some ice removal.

Monday was the first time in a long time that White and his crew spent their Christmas in the seat of a plow truck.

The entire Public Works crew and the town-contracted company P&K Sand and Gravel, Inc., joined forces to remove more than a foot of snow from town roads on Christmas, he said.

White oversees a four-man crew, which is responsible for 20 miles of Raymond’s main roads.

P&K maintains 30 miles of roadways in the Town of Raymond. In addition, P&K is contracted by the Town of Naples and has numerous private snow-removal accounts.

“We came out at 5 a.m. We were back home about 5 p.m. It stopped snowing around 2:30 p.m. It took a couple hours to make final rounds,” White said.

Since the National Weather Service (NWS) predicted the snowstorm in advance, the Public Works’ employees planned their Christmas accordingly.

“My guys, two of them did Christmas on Sunday. My wife and I did ours Monday night. Scott Picavet, my foreman, has two young boys at home so they did their Christmas on Sunday,” White said.

His observations were that the number of vehicles on the roads was higher than in the past.

“The traffic was pretty heavy for Christmas. There weren’t many cars out in the morning

But by the afternoon, there was a fair amount of traffic,” he said.

If there were any Grinches out there, they kept it to themselves. In fact, one resident made a special trip to the sand shed and thanked the snow-removal crew.

“We don’t have a lot of complaints. Most people are cordial to the crews. You’ll bump into people at the coffee shop and they’ll say, ‘thank you’ to us,” he said.

“Somebody stopped by yesterday (Tuesday) and said they really appreciate what we did,” he said.

As far as what is required to remove snow and make roads more drivable, “It was just another storm,” he said.

“My crew and P&K did a great job. I cannot ask for a better bunch of guys to work with. They come out and get the job done and do a good job,” White said.