Even as the snow melts and the temperature rises — for the last few days, anyway — the various effects of the harsh winter we’ve had are still making news, even beyond concerns about flooding.
Our Business pages reported this week, for instance, that national housing construction was down 16 percent in January, and down nearly 5 percent in December. Experts blamed the weather, of course.
Meanwhile, natural gas usage in our area has been the highest in a decade, according to Vectren Corp. The average residential customer used about a third more gas in January than last winter, the company told our reporter, Steve Bennish.
Over on the schools front, the Ohio House added four extra calamity days for students on Wednesday; most districts in our area ran out of them a while ago. The Senate gets the measure next.
And the best part? Old Man Winter is probably not quite done with us yet. Brrrrrrrr.
At least most days, the snow has been pretty. That’s something, I guess.
Thank you for reading the Springfield News-Sun and for supporting local journalism. Subscribers: log in for access to your daily ePaper and premium newsletters.
Thank you for supporting in-depth local journalism with your subscription to the Springfield News-Sun. Get more news when you want it with email newsletters just for subscribers. Sign up here.