Record-high temps draw residents outside, officials prep for rains
Winter-weary residents had an extra bounce in their step and a cheery “how ya doing?” for everyone they passed on Tuesday, when the mercury smashed the record high temperature of 68 set back in the late 19th Century.
Scotty Vice, the new general manager at Lake Arthur Country Club in Franklin Township, said his pro shop received about 50 calls in one hour on Tuesday morning asking if the course would be open.
“We've had a lot of rain and snow but we have good drainage, so we are good to go for walking only,” Vice said.
While he enjoyed the springlike weather on Tuesday, Butler Township's superintendent of public works, Thomas Knights, was thinking ahead of the rain that is forecast through Sunday.
The department's 12 full-time employees, Knights said, are constantly cleaning debris from catch basins so runoff can enter the underground storm system. But the job becomes a little more urgent when heavy rains or several days of rain are predicted.
“We have upward of 700 or 800 catch basins,” he said.
The National Weather Service reported readings of 77 degrees in Harmony and 75 degrees in Butler Tuesday.
The weather service is forecasting milder temperatures, but significant rain is expected to fall from Wednesday through Sunday.
A full story will appear in Wednesday's Butler Eagle.
