Goodall Landscaping was able to send 3 trucks and 6 employees to help out in Delaware.Photo: Goodall Landscaping
As Maine was spared the worst part of winter storm Jonas’ wrath, a crew of six landscapers from Goodall Landscaping was able to lend a hand in Delaware.
The group arrived in three trucks on Monday morning after making an all-night drive. They cleared a Home Depot parking lot in Claremont, Delaware, in about five hours before heading to Middletown, Delaware, to plow another Home Depot lot.
“One of the guys at Home Depot was ecstatic,” the landscaping company’s operations manager, Laura-Lee Bishop, told Bangor Daily News. “He applauded us.”
According to Bishop, the owner, Ben Goodall, had wanted to help out other states in the past but had never been able to spare the crews. This time around Goodall was able to coordinate with a national maintenance company so that the employees who volunteered for the trip would be paid for their time.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency did not send any public crews south for the storm, partly because the requests were so far away, MEMA Director Bruce Fitzgerald told the Bangor newspaper.
“We wanted to do our part,” Bishop said.
The crew from Goodall will remain in Delaware working eight-hour shifts for a few days, Bangor Daily News reported, before heading back to Maine to prepare for a forecasted storm there.
