This winter has hit the Hilltop particularly hard, with several consecutive days of snowfall, a blizzard, or wind chills well below zero.

One of the more recent storms, Juno, was the worst storm in history for southern New Hampshire in terms of snowfall.

“In the past decade, this stretch of winter (the past month or so) has definitely been one of the most challenging times for snow removal on the Hilltop,” Bill Furlong, Assistant Vice President of Facilities, said.

“The challenge this winter has been the fact that the snow storms have been so close together and that quite of few of the storms have had accumulations in excess of a foot of snow,” he added. “The multiple storms coupled with the colder than normal weather pattern has increased the volume of snow on campus and thus increased the challenge of where to put this snow.”

He went on to explain that there are nine full-time college employees, split between the Parking and Roadway department and the Grounds department, that are on campus to remove the snow as soon as it begins to accumulate and stay on campus to ensure removal of the snow as well as maintaining clear roads for emergency vehicles.

The Parking and Roadway department is responsible for keeping the roadways clear, and the Grounds department employees, along with a handful of student workers, remove the snow from the walkways and stairs.

Goffstown DPW is responsible for Saint Anselm Drive and the walkway along the road.

The amount of sand, salt, and calcium chloride used this winter has been slightly above the rolling average for the past half-decade, but that won’t keep the roads and walkways from being cleared.

The most difficult areas of campus to remove snow are the parking lots.

“It’s extremely difficult to move the volume of snow that we have had this year around parked vehicles,” Furlong said.

When asked what students could do to make the Parking and Roadway department’s job easier, he said “Students can help with the snow removal effort by complying with our requests to move vehicles to/from parking areas.  In addition, it would help if vehicles weren’t left overnight in parking areas that are designated as ½ hour lots.”

Some cities, such as Boston and Nashua, have made headlines for running out of places to put snow.

While they have utilized the harbor and public sports stadiums, respectively, those are not feasible options for the College.

“We continue to keep pushing the snow as far back as possible on the lawn areas,” Furlong said.