It was another snow day for Columbus and Lowndes County Thursday. And that meant many working parents were forced to take a snow day as well, or head into work with children in tow.
Gloria McCoy of Columbus called in to work at Mississippi Precision Cast Parts, so she could stay home with her children and granddaughter.
“My grandbaby really wanted to go to school,” McCoy said Thursday afternoon at Leigh Mall, where she was making a shopping trip with her daughter, Tiacara, a 10th-grader at West Lowndes High School. McCoy”s granddaughter is a fifth-grader at West Lowndes Elementary.
“I don”t want to make up any of these days,” said Tiacara.
Lowndes County schools already have tacked an extra day onto the school calendar to make up for last month”s snow days.
Suzy Huckaby walked along College Street in downtown Columbus with her daughter, Abby, 4, in tow in a wagon.
Abby”s preschool at St. Paul”s Episcopal Church closed for the day, and Huckaby”s workplace, Lighting Unlimited, opened with only the owner manning the store.
“She went in today, and let everyone else stay home, because they have children, so they could play in the snow with them,” said Huckaby, whose sister, Helen Pridmore, owns Lighting Unlimited.
Michelle Jackson took her sixth-grade daughter to work with her at Regis salon at Leigh Mall.
“In my workplace, we have two children who are at work with their moms because they didn”t have school today,” Jackson said.
Jackson”s other daughter, a senior, took advantage of day off by riding a four-wheeler in the snow.
“She”s quite happy they didn”t have school today,” Jackson noted.
Local businesses saw a handful of workers call in due to travel concerns and because children were out of school.
At Kmart, “four or five” workers called in Thursday morning.
“We did have (absent workers) due to weather, and also day cares closed,” said the store”s manager, Betty Harvey.
Of those who called in, most were traveling from out of town and would have faced treacherous conditions.
“Whenever you come in on 82, the bridges can get real bad, and some people come from right in the state line in Alabama, too,” Harvey said.
“I had a couple (of call-ins), but it wasn”t anything extraordinary,” said Bill Milam, brand central manager for Sears at Leigh Mall. “The people I had call in were coming from places like West Point, had to cross bridges (to get to work).”
At Sunflower grocery store on Highway 182, assistant manager Sandra Hall reported no call-ins.
“Our employees know that we have to work at the grocery store, even on snow days,” she said.
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