Pictured is the center of the village of Panama during a snowy winter night. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

PANAMA – In the midst of a winter season that has had multiple lake effect snow storms, the village of Panama has been keeping up with snow removal.

During the January meeting, Mayor William Schneider reported snow removal for the village has been going great so far.

“Snow removal has been going great,” Schneider said. “It’s been one of those years, I’m afraid. He’s been doing a good job keeping things cleared out and opened up.”

The village had received a few complaints before the meeting regarding cars parked on the side of the street overnight, but the board reported they had only seen one since and that the plows had had enough room. Schneider said that is something he tries to monitor as much as he can.

The board briefly discussed how there was an expected eight to 12 more inches possible by the Thursday morning after the meeting.

The weather was also noted to have played a part in the slightly lacking participation in the village’s Christmas Light Contest this year. The board discussed that voting and general participation in the contest was down for them, but that it seemed to be down for multiple places this year.

“You’d think with the weather being nicer longer that people would’ve taken advantage, but I think we were so caught up in the 70 degree days in November that people just didn’t even think about it and it came on too fast,” Village Trustee Kim Davis said. “This is probably the least participation we’ve had out of all of the years.”

Thanksgiving being later this year was thought to have played a part in lower participation as well. Schneider said fluctuation in participation is to be expected and that the village will see how it goes again next year.