Snowbound village has quietest morning in years

One reporter’s walk through downtown Arlington Heights:

For Arlington Heights residents on Wednesday, the choice was dig or get buried.

At the Scarsdale Condominium complex at Cleveland and Fairview, many chose to use the condo units as their personal igloo. Some gathered in the lobby early in the morning to marvel at the scene outside the windows.

The paths to the parking lots were knee-deep.

Throughout the surrounding Scarsdale neighborhood residents were valiantly plying snowblowers.

All were a bit awe-struck at the sheer volume of snow.

On McKinley Avenue, Chuck McComb said, “This is the biggest thing I’ve seen since 1967. I was 8 years old at the time.”

McComb was trying to shoot video, to preserve this for posterity. “I haven’t seen snow drifts like this since I was a little kid,” he marveled.

Cars along the street were buried in snow, while village plows periodically passed and cleared a path.

Mark Siwek was removing snow from in front of his house on Cleveland Avenue. He said he was going to take a couple of dogs into the backyard, but gave up after opening up the sliding door and looking out.

At the end of the block at Cleveland and Davis Street, an abandoned vehicle was cemented in the snow.

Downtown Arlington Heights was a virtual ghost town this morning.

At Arlington Heights Road and Sigwalt Street, the snow was piled in high banks, while the mounds of snow grew along the side streets of the downtown.

On Dunton Avenue, the snow along the side of the road was so high, it almost blocked the shop awnings.

At least one woman walking her dog down Dunton Avenue thought the storm was exciting. “I’m from Oregon and I was beginning to think you didn’t have real winter,” said Linda Murtaugh, who relocated to Arlington Heights. Murtaugh was walking Luna, a leonberger who is a real snow hound.

She said she was impressed with how the village has handled the weather emergency. “It’s awesome.”

“I grew up in Wisconsin. This is just a good old-fashioned snowstorm,” said Tim Mickelson, owner of Biggby Coffee, 21 S. Dunton Ave., Arlington Heights.

Biggby was serving customers, some of whom lived in a nearby high-rise on Evergreen Avenue that had lost power. Mickelson also lives in that complex.

“We’re fortunate to have power this morning (at the coffee shop) so we can service our customers,” said Mickelson. The Biggby shop at the Arlington Heights Metra station did not open for business today.

He said power went out at the complex around 8 a.m. When he called it in, he listened to a message saying thousands were affected and crews would be out as soon as possible.

Tyler Grissom, who lives at Dunton Tower in downtown Arlington Heights, was sitting in front of his laptop at Biggby Wednesday morning. Grissom works at Willow Creek Community Church.

“I just got up this morning and saw that the coffee shop was open and thought it would be better to work from here than work at home.” He was e-mailing people about a weekly Wednesday event at church that was being canceled.

“The building hardly ever shuts down,” he said. “But there is kind of this 20/20 rule.” When it is 20 below or there are 20 inches of snow, it closes.

Another customer, Marcie Fleming, said she lives in the building that lost power. “Our smoke alarm went off, so the fire department showed up just to make sure that there wasn’t a fire. But it wasn’t. It just triggered the alarm.”

She said her husband works at the Deerfield post office.

“He got up this morning and saw that Arlington Heights Road was totally plowed, so he thought all of the streets were like that,” Fleming said.

“He drove all the way into work and all the way to the post office. He was the only one in the parking lot. He was the only one there.”