Jerry Klintworth cuts into a section of Rockland Avenue in Belpre as crews worked to repair a waterline break Friday afternoon as the area prepares for another possible 1-3 inches of snow that was expected Friday afternoon and into Saturday morning. (Photo by Brett Dunlap)

By Brett Dunlap

Staff Report

PARKERSBURG — More snow is in the forecast as the area prepares to keep roads open.

After around a foot of snow blanketed the area earlier this week, the National Weather Service in Charleston is reporting another 1-3 inches of snowfall from Friday afternoon into Saturday for the Parkersburg area.

A storm system was moving into the area Friday afternoon and going into Saturday morning, Meteorologist Tom Mazza.

“It should be over by the afternoon,” he said.

The weather service had issued a winter weather advisory that went from 4 p.m. Friday to 4 p.m. Saturday. The advisory said some areas could see up to four inches of new snow accumulation. Mazza said the snowfall could end sooner in some parts of the western part of the state.

“In the Parkersburg area it will be over a little sooner,” he said. “For areas into Clarksburg, it will take further into the afternoon before it quits.”

Mazza said temperatures went from the low 20s on Friday and are expected to remain in the 20s throughout the event and possibly getting up into the low to mid 30s Saturday afternoon.

Sunny conditions are expected Sunday with a high reaching 35 and a low of 20 Sunday night.

“It will then be cloudy with snow showers moving in on Monday,” Mazza said. “They will be hit and miss and scattered snow showers on Monday.

“It won’t be real organized.”

Mazza also said it is expected to be cold from Tuesday to Thursday next week with highs in the upper teens and lows in the single digits. Athens, Ohio, was at -1 Friday morning, he said.

“We will get close to getting that cold a couple of mornings next week,” Mazza said adding lows will be 3 to 5 degrees those days.

After coming off of a busy week from digging out from last week’s snowfall, road crews will be ready to head back out to clear roadways.

Parkersburg Public Works Director Everett Shears said they will get called out when the police department tells them that roadways are becoming slick again.

“We have a team ready to come out and respond,” he said. “We have got everything up and running.”

On Friday, they had one truck that needed some work and they were waiting on a part. They hoped to have it fixed and ready to go out by the time it would be needed.

“We are pretty much ready,” Shears said of crews and equipment.

Shears said the area has seen more snow this winter than it has in the past few years.

“We haven’t had this much in a little while,” he said. “We will deal with it as we get it.”

Belpre Mayor Susan Abdella said she had a crew ready to go Friday afternoon as soon as the snow started.

“I will have another crew that will be in first thing in the morning to take over,” she said.

Although not as much snow is being predicted for this storm compared to what the area got earlier this week, officials want to make sure roadways are treated and cleared.

“We want to make sure we are there and available to salt and cinder the roads,” Abdella said.

She said the city is prepared and its equipment was ready to go.

“Everything was working fine,” Abdella said.

Crews in Belpre were repairing a waterline break along Rockland Avenue at the intersection of Ashberry Drive on Friday.

Abdella said she knows of the situation and believes it was due to the cold weather as crews were out on Friday handling a few waterline issues.

Parkersburg officials said the temperature has remained consistent and they haven’t had many waterline issues due to weather.

Parkersburg Utility Board Manager Eric Bennett said they have had a few leaks but not widespread problems, due to the fact that temperatures have remained low. Snow stays on the ground and actually provides some insulation.

“You don’t have the fluctuation in the temperatures” that causes the ground to shift and pipes to break, Bennett said.

That could change when temperatures start to rise.

Ashley Rittenhouse, Spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Transportation District 10, said their road crews in Washington County would have normally would have been off by 3:30 p.m. Friday, but they kept them at work until 11:30 p.m. in anticipation of the expected new snowfall and the need to clear the roadways. A new crew will come in then and is expected to work through the night on area highways.

“We made sure our equipment was ready to roll, we have brine made and plenty of salt on hand,” Rittenhouse said.

Again, ODOT is advising people to stay home if they can, but if people have to drive they need to give themselves extra time to get where they are going. Also, they advise people to drive their crews enough room to be able to do their work.

Although not as much snow is expected as what the area received earlier in the week, one to three inches is still enough to cause problems for people out and about.

“It is certainly close to the event we just had (earlier this week) but we are ready to roll out and do it all over again, but it looks like there won’t be as much this time,” Rittenhouse said.

City Editor Evan Bevins contributed to this story.