January 1, 2007 , 8:00 a.m.

It is 17 degrees here and the sun is shining. Efforts are being made to plow small paths down city streets for emergency vehicles and mounds of snow are being created as the front end loader burrows through deep snow.

A man with a snowmobile is attempting to check on and a local woman and is having problems navigating the streets because of the deep paths and piles of snow left in the streets by the snow plow. She is 95 years old and he is bringing her some army rations. Yesterday the snow was pristine and smooth and it was easy to navigate with a snowmobile, but today it may prove more difficult. To add to that, the brake handle on his snowmobile broke when a pile of ice and snow caused him to hit a bush. The snowmobile driver is using the road today, which is a deep snow trench, and he is having to walk through deep snow to get to a house.

On main street business awnings have fallen to the sidewalk, and the roof of Trails Inn Dinning has collapsed. The roof on Gambles hardware’s has also completely collapsed.

Traders Thriftway has a huge snow drift in the front parking lot, but people have been seen walking to Traders and leaving with bags so they are open for business if you can get there on foot.

Another story unfolds as an army truck attempts to deliver 200 bottles of insulin to Walsh by noon. Highway 160 has been partly plowed but not completely. It’s a 30 mile trip. I hope they are successful as the insulin is badly needed.

The nursing home in Walsh was having a problem with their roof which was about to collapse so some residents were evacuated from several rooms and the roof was reinforced. That information was heard over a radio scanner. I will update with any other news I hear later.

Happy new year Springfield.

If you have any questions, feel free to email me. I will do my best to answer them.