Digging out, digging in and digging it — Maine’s snow businesses happy with Juno

But overall the Twin Cities and Maine in general handled Juno with relatively little pain, according to state and local officials.

“We’re doing pretty good,” said Joanne Potvin, the director of Androscoggin County’s Emergency Management Agency. Potvin said overnight Tuesday there were no reported incidents, and that agency activities were largely back to normal returning to its regular training schedule and activities.

There were only nine homes in Androscoggin County without power Wednesday morning and all of them were in Poland, Potvin noted.

Potvin said the many schools in the region that were closed for a second day made the right choice as sidewalks and side roads were still in the process of being cleared.

“I think it was very, very prudent for them to have an additional day,” Potvin said, noting that the volume of snow was too much for smaller staffs to clear in a single day.

Meanwhile, local businesses, such as Lost Valley, were happy to have the new snow after a fairly dry December and early January.

“We are very optimistic,” said Lincoln Hayes, a co-owner of the Auburn ski resort. “Any time you get 27 inches of the light and fluffy — it doesn’t get any better than that.”

Hayes said the midweek timing of the storm was probably a good thing and said more snow in the forecast would likely result in more skiers and snowboard riders visiting the ski hill.

Sarah Devlin, a spokeswoman for the Sunday River ski resort in Newry, said they saw just over 18 inches of snow from Juno. Devlin said there was one sound early Wednesday that was making her smile.

“All I can hear is (ski) boots buckling,” Devlin said.

Greg Sweetser, the executive director of Ski Maine, an industry association, said with snow on the ground from the coast to the mountains. “The visual reminder” that helps people think about outdoor winter activities like downhill and cross-country skiing was in place.

Sweetser said the natural snow was especially important to the state’s cross-country ski centers, which do not have the the ability to make snow.

He said the late January timing of the storm was great for resorts, which are heading into the busiest parts of their season in February and March.

Sweetser summed up the industry’s feelings about Juno in just two words.

“We’re pumped,” Sweetser said.

Final snowfall amounts were still being reported at the National Weather Service station in Gray early Wednesday, but it was likely the blizzard, dubbed Juno, was going into the record books, at least for some parts of the state.

“As you moved away from the coast you tended to get less snow,” said Michael Sempa, a meteorologist at the station. “The bull’s-eye was the southwestern part of the state, that’s where the higher amounts were in general.”

Snowfall totals for Bethel were at 19 inches while Greene was reporting 30 inches.

Other towns that had reported overnight included Turner with 28.5 inches and Lisbon Falls with an even two feet of snow.

Another storm moving into the region on Friday and another on Monday are also expected to produce snow, both snowfall totals are expecteed to be around 6 inches.

According to the National Weather Service in Gray, final snowfall totals, calculated in inches, for towns in Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties are:

* Andover, 9;

* Auburn, 24;

* Bethel, 18;

* Bryant Pond, 14;

* Durham, 23;

* Eustis, 6.9;

* Farmington, 22;

* Greene, 30;

* Hartford, 18.8;

* Lewiston, 28.5;

* Lisbon Falls, 24;

* New Sharon, 14;