Tough winter: Lack of snow hurting some Greater Fall River businesses

FALL RIVER — March has turned into a crunchy, frozen mess, but we expected that.

January, after all, was almost pleasant. February was tolerable. We live in New England. We knew snow and misery was headed our way.

But not so fast: Not everyone curses the snow.

“Snow is my bread and butter,” said Don Giumetti, owner of the Shepard Group, 822 American Legion Highway, Westport.

“We don’t want winter to end.

“This has been the worse winter we have had in the past 13 years. Winter didn’t really start until the end of February. We’ve had only five storms since the beginning of the year.”

Of course, Giumetti’s attitude is understandable. Shepard Group has 60 trucks on the road, the largest private snowplow fleet south of Boston.

“Overall, this has been a tough winter,” he said “Auto body and auto parts stores are hurting, too. Car washes are down. There is a trickledown effect.

“For some people it has been really good.”

Count John Perry in that group. Perry is the director of community maintenance for the city. He oversees at least 50 trucks and machines with every snowstorm.

“It has been a light winter so far,” he said. “Our trucks and our budget are in good shape.”

This past week was the exception. He hired private plows to assist and 128 trucks were out all through the weekend, pushing back the snow that fell Saturday to widen streets before Monday’s snow and cold arrived.

“Knowing we would have these cold temperatures coming in, we wanted to get the snow curb to curb before it froze solid,” he said.

Manny Arruda of Flamingo Landscaping of Fall River said people in his business count on plowing to get them through the winter months.

“I don’t care for snow,” he said. “I do it to give my regular customers some help.

“I have other work to do. I don’t miss snow when it doesn’t fall.”

“For me, this is great,” said Louie Gaspar of Gaspar Landscaping. “I can’t stand snow.

“The plowing itself is terrible. And you don’t make much money after you pay for insurance and repairs and gas and oil.

“I’m happy when it doesn’t snow.”

“I think we all hate plowing,” said Richie Guerreiro, owner of Copicut Landscaping of Dartmouth. “It is blood money. But it is our source of income in the winter.”

So snow is a mixed blessing, he said.

“No one likes to see their bank account dwindling away all winter,” he said.

Tim DaSilva said the long mild spell through much of December and January allowed a lot of landscape crews to stay busy building walls and grading unfrozen ground.

“We kept the season rolling late into the winter,” he said. “So it hasn’t been bad.”

For some, the winter has been less than a mixed blessing.

At Dave’s Tire and Auto, 325 Bedford St., the usual spring rush for new tires, new rims, new headlights has not materialized, owner John Cormier said.

“Before the holidays, it was crazy,” he said. “We had been busy up until this month.”

Across the street, Bill Herndon, the owner of Cliff’s Car Wash, 364 Bedford St., said lots of rain and not much snow is bad for the car wash business.

“When it rains, people don’t come in, and it has rained all winter,” he said. “Now it is cold, so that keeps people away.

“My business is really dependent on the weather. I like a little snow. I like enough to make cars dirty, but not enough to shovel.”

Email Kevin P. O’Connor at koconnor@heraldnews.com.