Three of Perry Village’s elected officials did more than just evaluate snowplowing performed by the community’s Public Works Department during the severe and prolonged winter storm that began Thanksgiving night. In fact, Mayor James Gessic and Councilmen Mike Glover and Elias Coss all donated their time by driving village plow trucks and helping to clear snow from the community’s roads. “If you want to get a good perspective on what these road crew guys do, put your butt in one of those plow trucks for four hours or five hours and just spend a little bit of time with them. They earn every penny that they make.” — Perry Councilman Mike Glover Village Council President Jean Schonauer expressed her gratitude to Gessic, Glover and Coss, whom she described as being “very helpful” to village Public Works Department employees with snow removal efforts. “We managed with our road crew and our support staff to handle it quite nicely,” Schonauer said, during the Dec. 12 Village Council meeting. The storm, which continued for about five days, blanketed Northeast Ohio with a heavy accumulation of lake effect snow. Based on the substantial amount of snow and strong winds that were battering the region as of Nov. 29, Perry Village canceled its Santa Visits Lee Lydic Park event that had been scheduled for Dec. 1. Instead of preparing to host a festive outdoor event featuring Santa Claus, village government leaders focused their attention on clearing snow that was falling persistently on village streets. Glover said that he helped out by plowing snow in a village truck for one day, while Coss performed those same duties for at least two days during the storm. Gessic, meanwhile, probably plowed snow on village streets for 34 to 36 hours over a five-day period, according to an estimate by Glover that was confirmed by the mayor. Operating a village plow truck during a major winter storm was a challenging experience, Glover said. “If you want to get a good perspective on what these road crew guys do, put your butt in one of those plow trucks for four hours or five hours and just spend a little bit of time with them,” he said. “They earn every penny that they make.”