Lack of snow affects businesses

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - For businesses that work around the clock when snow hits may be in trouble this season.

But one Wabash Valley lawn care service says the lack of snow helps them get a head start to the spring season.

Chad Feller owner of precision lawn care says the last time he remembers a warm winter similar to this years was back in the 80's.

Feller's been in business for twenty years and until this year’s 2011-2012 season, his workers have never had a winter without mounds of snow.

Chad Feller, owner of Precision Lawn Care and Property Management says, "Last year this time, I think we plowed snow eleven times and we had the ice storm that was four days of pure panic. This year it’s been no where near that."

A snowy season makes up thirty-percent of Feller's yearly income; plowing and salting roads.

But Feller says the absence of snow is a blessing and a curse at the same time.

His business needs to plow to make money but the core of his business is mowing and landscaping.

No snow means Feller can get a jump start on spring clean up, preventing him from rushing from one season to the next.

To get an idea of how different the winter work season is for Feller.

He says he salted more than eighty-tons of salt and sand mix last year, compared to just thirty-thousand pounds of salt this winter.

Feller says that's a big difference.