Last Monday's scheduled furlough day for Department of Public Works staffers was canceled to deal with the blizzard, according to Mayor Andy Skibitsky.

Skibitsky said that the department's 38 furloughed workers were called back in on Sunday, Dec. 26 and continued working on Dec. 27 to clear the street. Several in the community have contacted Patch saying that the furlough day prevented the town from clearing the streets.

"They were called back in and responded, all but one showed up and I don't know why he wasn't there," Skibitsky said. "Thirty seven out of 38 came back in."

Skibitsky said the DPW's main concern early on had been the main roads in town, before moving on to the secondary roads. Many of the secondary roads remained snow covered late into Monday evening and had snow on the roadways after the initial plowing until later in the week.

Skibitsky defended the town's response to the storm, saying that the size of the blizzard, which dumped over two-feet of snow on the town made it tough to clear the streets quickly. The blizzard has been cited as one of the five worst snowstorms to hit New Jersey.

"This is one of the worst storms in recorded history," he said. "There were drifts that were three to four feet high. Because of the size of the drifts our trucks got stuck, which took time away from plowing. We don't have a fleet of trucks to handle this type of storm."

Skibitsky said that while in past storms the town would have DPW workers come in overnight to handle downtown streets and parking lots the time needed to clear town roads prevented that from occurring this year. He said that the DPW staff had worked over 36 hours clearing the roads and town officials did not feel it would be safe to have them handle overnight clearing of the lots.

Many of the town's parking lots were not cleared out by the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 28, causing concern among local business owners.

Skibitsky also said the town's cash strapped budget played a role in the decision to not plow in the overnight hours. Town officials said in February that the town's overtime budget had been spent to clear roads after two blizzards hit the town, including one that left Westfield under the most snow in the metropolitan region.

"There is a budget to work with," Skibitsky said. "We have to cognizant of the budget. It is working with the resources."

Skibitsky said that town officials have not calculated the fiscal impact of last week's blizzard, but expected that it would cause money to be juggled to handle the overtime.

The scheduled furlough day, one of five in the town's contract with the DPW staff, was factored in to the budget, with the funds spent on regular salary now spent, along with overtime for the entire snow plowing effort. He said that regardless of funds, clearing the streets remained a priority for the town, from a safety perspective and allowing for residents to get to work.

"The storm didn't help us in closing out the fiscal year," Skibitsky said. "The overtime was not budgeted for. It didn't make things easier for us."