Peterborough businesses welcome the winter and cold blasts

When salt would normally come in handy for a slippery situation, lately it’s been quite useless, says a hardware store owner, Drew Merrett.

“We used to sell lots of salt but it’s been so cold that salt really didn’t have an effect on -20 C. It doesn’t really work really good,” said Merrett, owner of Merrett Home Hardware Building Centre.

But heaters, on the other hand, are flying off the shelves.

“I think we have one heater left in the store, got a bunch more coming on Wednesday, but right now, there’s just, it’s so cold — people just want to get one room hot I think, so they just buy a heater, a space heater from one area,” said Merrett.

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Business is also brisk for snowblower sales and repairs with last-minute panic.

“A last-minute panic as the snow hit through the holidays — everyone seems to forget from year to year that we’re going to get this large amount of snow. It’s going to snow every year in Peterborough, there’s no question,” said Mark Bridgen, owner of MC Power and Sport.

A big mistake people make during this time of year is they blow the belt on their snowblower because of a mistake that could have been avoided by simply blowing the snow out of the auger before it’s put away.

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“Just prior to putting the machine away, hold your lever down that engages your auger that blows the snow. Hold it down for a minute or two, just to clean out that housing, then when you do put it away, there’ll be nothing there that will freeze up,” said Bridgen.

The city of Peterborough is reminding residents to not park on city streets during overnight snow-clearing operations, or you will likely have your vehicle towed and receive an $80 fine.