(NECN: Kenneth Craig, Sutton, MA): - It may be a snow day for students in Sutton, but it was a full day of hard work for town crews.
At Sutton High School Tuesday, workers packed the roof with shovels in hand, working nonstop to get rid of more than three feet of snow.
"We saw that we had drifts with 30 to 40 inches of snow and potentially 20- 24 inches of snow coming in, said Sutton Public Schools Superintendent Ted Friend. "We feel it prudent to get on the roof and start taking care of this now."
Officials say there is no threat of collapse and all the school buildings are safe, but they're not taking any chances. It's why they called in the fire department for help. At the school firefighters used a ladder truck to hoist snow blowers onto the high school roof.
"It's a very big undertaking . We have a commercial crew coming in this afternoon and snow blowers on the roof this afternoon," Friend said.
Officials say they have no idea how much all of this will cost them because they've never had to anything like this before. "We haven't seen snow like this since the blizzard of '78. This is a once every 25 years issue."
It's an issue affecting buildings around Central Massachusetts.
Most recently, at a Shell gas station in Worcester where a canopy collapsed Sunday. On Monday, a building at Quinsigamond Community College was evacuated due to structural concerns. It was back open by Tuesday.
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"People should be concerned with that and they actually should have professions to come out take some of the snow off the roof to lighten the load," Worcester Fire Department Spokesperson Captain Bill Meterville said Monday. It's advice you don't have to tell Sutton officials twice.
