NORTHAMPTON — Hampshire County was blanketed by the season’s first significant snowfall this weekend.
It was very mannerly storm, arriving as predicted Saturday morning, the snowflakes falling gently to the ground with nary a breeze to alter their course. For holiday shoppers and retail workers, play and business seemed to be going on as usual.
But for the owners of nearly 70 vehicles parked in Northampton overnight, Sunday was anything but.
The Department of Public Works had announced a snow emergency, which included a parking ban on city streets and in parking lots for Sunday, from midnight to 6 a.m.
A count from the Police Department’s logs shows that, from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m. Sunday, at least 65 vehicles were towed, with most of the operators also receiving citations for parking ban infractions. Northampton police said that there were lights by the roads to inform the public that a parking ban was in effect.
As the snow was falling Saturday, Elaina Katz was still ringing a bell for the Salvation Army outside Thornes Marketplace. Katz, who lives in Northampton, said that hers would be the last shift of the day; she expected to be packing up around 2 p.m.
At the Academy of Music, people were undeterred by the snow and were scurrying inside to catch the 1 p.m. performance of the Pioneer Valley Ballet’s “The Nutcracker.” Juliana Arenas, of Amherst, and Adrian Speyer, 8, were meeting up with Speyer’s grandmother Susan Levine for the show.
“It feels like it’s the season,” Levine said of the snow.
Despite the chilly temperatures, dropping to around 27 degrees, Maisie Kaiser was carrying iced beverages from the Haymarket Cafe back to her coworkers at Glamourama where she works as a receptionist.
“I had a hot coffee myself,” Kaiser said.
Kaiser said that the salon was running normally, but that as a Northampton resident, parking was going to be a problem for her. During a snow emergency, parking on Main Street is prohibited from 2 a.m. to 7 a.m., but is allowed in the Armory Street parking lot, except from 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to allow for plowing. For Kaiser, that meant that she and everyone in her building would need to fit their cars into a small lot.
On the other hand, there was something to be said for living close to her job. “Luckily, I’m able to walk home,” Kaiser said.
At least three snow-related accidents — involving four vehicles — occurred while roads were slick, police said Sunday. None of the accidents resulted in personal injuries, but two of the crashes resulted in more than $1,000 damage.
Editor’s Note: This story was revised on Sunday, Dec. 10, at 9:15 p.m. to add information provided by Gazette contributor David McLellan.