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Navigating walkways requires special snow rules

On Monday afternoon, there were no mail carriers at the Durango Post Office.

“Lordy, darling – they won’t be back for hours,” said one woman who was working the Post Office desk.

“Mother Nature hates mailmen,” said mail carrier Scott Codding, who had just completed a delivery at the General Palmer Hotel on Monday afternoon despite the icy curb.

He said the snow had made his job considerably “rougher.”

“It’s been terrible. It’s hard to find parking spaces,” he said.

Wayne Tweed, who was driving a UPS truck on Monday, said he was way behind on his route.

“We started on time, at 9 a.m. But I don’t think I’ll be done with deliveries until 9 or 10 tonight,” he said.

Tweed said it had been difficult to complete many deliveries – especially heavy packages, which Tweed ferried to their Main Avenue destinations atop a push cart.

“It’s a workout just to get them across the street. The sidewalks are icy. And people don’t shovel them!” he said.

But, Tweed said, his plight was nothing compared to that of many of his colleagues.

“At least I’m in town,” he said, a fortunate gig compared to the trials that face his county-bound coworkers.

The snow closed down several downtown businesses, including Yardbird, Dolce and Colorado Clothing.

Meanwhile, the roads were not exactly lawless, but motorists and pedestrians alike seemed to ignore the usual traffic rules, which forbid jaywalking and driving on the wrong side of street. Instead, everyone on the roads seemed to operate under “snow law” – a vague, largely improvised legal regime whereby going the wrong way down a one-way street is allowed so long as the vehicle never goes faster than 5 mph.

Heroes emerged in the midst of Monday’s storm. Throughout the morning on Main Avenue, several shopkeepers managed such strenuous showings with shovels that any grave diggers looking on had reason to fear for their jobs.

Those without shovels found themselves vulnerable and alone. One man’s valiant struggle to liberate his brown car from a snowbank at 10th Street and East Fourth Avenue recalled a whale beached on an iceberg in the middle of the Atlantic. Though giant, no amount of acceleration could propel the flailing car out of its space, into the slush-flooded street.

Though business was slow at Magpies on Monday, John Steputis said the snow worked wonders for the Strater Hotel: “There were guests who checked out yesterday. Then it snowed, and they came right back.”

Steputis acknowledged streets would soon flood with mud.

Nonetheless, he relished the chilly beauty.

“I was walking home last night, and everything was cloaked in white. It was refreshing,” he said.

Besides aesthetics, Steputis said the snow was good for Durango.

“I love wildflowers,” he said. “And wildflowers, the river, local tourism – it all depends on water.”

Laurel Vogel, who has lived in Durango for 40 years, said though the heavy snowfall might shock those recently transplanted, the storm was business-as-usual for long-standing residents with four-wheel drive.

“You’re just happy to see it,” Vogel said. “You get the bad with the good. But we need the water.”

She offered newcomers to town one piece of advice.

“Heavens: Drive carefully.”

cmcallister@durangoherald.com



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