With around 4 feet of snow falling in seven days, skiers were woo-hooing at Sunday River in Newry on Monday and Guthries owners were hoping to put the Lewiston restaurant’s worst sales week of the year behind them.

Central Maine Powersports in Lewiston was busy with last-minute snowmobilers outfitting their rides and the Maine Turnpike Authority was tallying the one-day estimated economic impact of last week’s blizzard.

That estimate: Close to a cool half-million dollars.

All of the snow in the last week has meant a mixed bag for bottom lines in Maine.

“The woods are full of people hooting and hollering,” said Sarah Devlin, spokeswoman at Sunday River, where skier traffic was up.

The ski resort went into last week’s blizzard with just over 100 open trails and ended with 135.

“Listening to patrol on the radio throughout the day was amazing,” she said. “‘Gnarnia is open.’ ‘Yetiville is open.’ These are all-new glades that we could open to the public, getting skied for the first time.”

Manager Amy Asselin at Central Maine Powersports said she couldn’t put a number to how busy the shop was Monday, “but everybody who normally would wait for some sort of snow like this to get their snowmobiles out and ready decided to today.

“People are buying parts and accessories or things to get the snowmobiles that they already have going or they’re buying used sleds that are older,” she said.

Heather Letourneau, co-owner of Guthries, was way ready for the snow to be over.

The blizzard closed her restaurant last Tuesday and the next storm canceled live music and cut short the last show in their adjoining Guthries Independent Theater on Friday night.

Snow has narrowed Middle Street, making it hard to receive deliveries and it has kept customers home.

“They’ve got other things on their mind, not driving in the really bad weather,” Letourneau said. “I’m hoping it’s going to be our worst week of the year. It’s pretty bad.”

Five years ago, Per Garder, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Maine, was part of a report that helped estimate that Maine spends $98 million on winter road maintenance, or $76 per person, and buys an estimated 750 pounds of rock salt per person each winter.

He said Monday he didn’t think the numbers had changed dramatically in the years since.

“People have gotten the expectation nowadays it should be possible to drive like summertime, all the time, everywhere,” Garder said. “If we go back a couple of generations people had very different expectations.”

In Lewiston, Megan Bates, public works deputy director, estimated that a 12- to 16-hour storm costs the city $37,000 for activities such as plowing and sanding.

Erin Courtney, spokeswoman for the Maine Turnpike Authority, said the estimated one-day economic impact of last week’s blizzard was nearly $500,000. That included $81,000 in additional wages and manpower, $81,000 in salt and $360,000 in lost revenue from all the drivers who stayed home.

On an average Tuesday, the MTA sees $260,000 from E-ZPass use, she said. Last Tuesday, that was $10,800 instead.

Garder said for most businesses, he would expect sales to come back with the sun.

“To a great extent, I think, snowstorms just delay,” he said. “People don’t go out shopping today but tomorrow will be a sunny, beautiful day and there’s a pent-up need. I don’t think snow and winter is devastating to the economy. And of course it can also be beneficial that people come to Maine for snowmobiling or skiing.”

The sun is coming. But then it might go away.

Meteorologist Mike Ekster with the National Weather Service in Gray said close to 38 inches was expected to have fallen in the last week by the time Monday’s storm wrapped up. The next snow may be coming Thursday or Friday but it was too early to say how much.

“It’s pretty impressive,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t even get 35 inches in a month.”

Letourneau said at the end of last week she was starting to notice an attitude shift. Despite cutting the night short, Guthries had a busy lunch on Friday.

“People were getting the sense, ‘I’m sick of it, I’m just going out, I’m not going to let it stop me.’ That happens, too at some point,” she said. “People are just like, ‘to heck with it.'”

kskelton@sunjournal.com

The one-day estimated economic impact of last Tuesday’s blizzard on the Maine Turnpike Authority:

Estimated loss of revenue: $310,000

Cost of additional wages and manpower: $81,000

Cost of salt: $81,000

Cost of extra fuel: $11,000

Business on an average Tuesday: $70,000 in cash, $260,000 from E-ZPass

Business during the blizzard: $3,000 in cash, $10,800 from E-ZPass

SOURCE: Maine Turnpike Authority

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