Snow snarls holiday traffic, subdues events

SHAWANO — Utility crews restored the last of electrical outages on Monday, homeowners and business owners continued to shovel out and area businesses and organizations assessed the impact from this past weekend’s storms.

The National Weather Service Green Bay office reported Shawano received 8.6 inches of snow in a storm that brought over 12 inches in northwestern Shawano County.

George Lenzner, Shawano County chief deputy, reported that a power outage on Monday morning at the sheriff’s department disrupted phone communications and operations. The jail remained secure and the 911 call center remained functional. Lenzner said there was a lot of the usual for a winter snowstorm such as vehicles sliding into ditches.

One personal injury accident was reported Monday morning on Wittenberg-Birnamwood Line Road from a single car going off the road, he said but didn’t have any further details.

Downed trees and limbs were a concern, especially in the western part of the county, the chief deputy said.

The weather had an impact on downtown Shawano activities.

“We had a lot of people out earlier in the afternoon” to participate in activities such as taking horse and wagon rides, roasting marshmallows and other family activities, Lindsey Johnson, coordinator of the Business Improvement District in Shawano, said of the holiday stroll and tree lighting event on Nov. 30.

When rain and sleet started to be an issue around 4:15-4:20 p.m., organizers decided to turn on the tree lights in Franklin Park ahead of the scheduled 5 p.m. time.

Johnson said businesses that she’s contacted had a good Saturday due to the national Small Businesses Saturday event and local stroll and tree lighting.

“It worked really well despite the weather,” she said.

She was satisfied with the event, now in its second year. She noted that area businesses and organizations sponsored 50 trees, up from 40 in 2018.

“It seem like people like to have the trees lighted,” she said and encouraged people to check out the trees that will stay lit through New Year’s Eve. She hopes to add even more next year.

The Rev. Mark Drengler, senior pastor at St. James Lutheran Church in Shawano, said services were held over the weekend as scheduled but attendance was significantly lower although he had heard of other churches cancelling services. Redeemer Lutheran and St. Paul’s Lutheran churches in the Wittenberg area cancelled Sunday services.

Brian Carroll, Gresham utility operations manager, reported multiple outages over the weekend but everyone in the village service area had power by Monday morning.

“The outages were caused by ice that accumulated on the wires and then we got the snow,” Carroll said.

The weight of the snow caused branches to drop down on wires and there’s not much you can do at that point, he said.

Carroll pointed out that a three-foot long pine branch can weigh 200 pounds when laden with snow and that is hard on utility wires.

“Mother Nature wins,” he said.

Rob Koepp, Shawano Municipal Utility (SMU) electrical supervisor, reported the city had only a few sporadic outages over the weekend but there was what he called “a major circuit trip” about 6:30 a.m. Monday.

The outage affected the area from Shawano Community High School on the south, north along Lincoln Street and continuing north of the city, affecting about 1,000 customers. All customers had their power restored by 8 a.m. with 75 percent of customers restored in 35 minutes, Koepp said.

The Alliant Energy web site showed seven outages Monday morning in the NEW Media circulation area. The utility covers northern and eastern Shawano County and sections of Menominee, Waupaca, Langlade, and Outagamie counties. Three outages affecting 670 customers was reported on the eastern edge of the Menominee Reservation along County Road M and state Highway 55 and the Legend Lake area.

Alliant also reported three outages affecting 28 customers in an area bounded by Leopolis on the northwest, Belle Plaine on the east and Buckbee on the south. The utility projected all power restored by early Monday afternoon.

As of Monday morning, the Central Wisconsin Electrical Cooperative reported two outages in the Stockbridge-Munsee Community area affecting 395 people and an outage in the town of Germania northwest of Tigerton affecting 229 people. No estimate on the time of restoring power was given on the site. The utility service area takes in western Shawano County from the Menominee County line south into Waupaca and Portage counties.

Hanke’s Sentry Foods in Wittenberg was closed all of Sunday.

WE Energies, serving eastern and southern Shawano County, reported a crew was on its way late Monday morning for an outage on the west shore of Shawano Lake.