TRAVERSE CITY- A powerful late-season winter storm is blanketing the Traverse City area, keeping snow removal crews working around the clock.
Joe Stringer, owner of Lakeview Lawn and Snow, said his five-man crew had been out since midnight with five John Deere tractors equipped with snow blowers, covering the Traverse City area and roads up to 10 to 15 miles outside of town. They were still working at noon, with plenty more houses to visit.
Stringer described the snow as unusually heavy for a lake-effect system.
“It’s very, very dense snow,” he said. “A lot of snow is still coming down -- not the normal lake effect system.”
Despite the late-March timing, Stringer said storms of this scale aren’t entirely unusual for the region.
“This late March, just kind of a bonus,” he said. “We do get some big storms in March and April, but this is a good one.”
The storm has pushed his crew’s seasonal callout count close to 40 times. Once snow season winds down, Stringer said his business transitions directly into lawn care and maintenance, keeping the operation running year-round.