READING, Pa \u2013 After a brief break from winter-like weather, colder temperatures are moving back into Berks County, and officials say it\u2019s time to be ready again.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania Department of Transportation crews in Reading said they\u2019re already preparing for slick roads as temperatures were expected to drop overnight, Wednesday into Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just going to keep an eye on things for freezing roads,\u201d said Rick Stone, county manager for Berks County PennDOT.<\/p>\n
Stone said PennDOT crews were already preparing.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have everything manned by 4 a.m. unless it moves in a little sooner,\u201d Stone said Wednesday. \u201cThen we\u2019ll get them out earlier. But right now, we\u2019ll have everything manned before rush hour tomorrow morning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The bigger message: Don’t let a warm day trick you into thinking winter is over.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been too bad of a winter so far for us. Enough to keep us a little busy, but we\u2019ve been able to get some maintenance stuff done and keep an eye on things,\u201d Stone said. \u201cBut it\u2019s not over yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials say it’s also a concern for people without warm places to stay.\u2028Local shelters, like Opportunity House and Hope Rescue Mission, open additional space so people can get out of the cold.<\/p>\n
Animal control officers were also preparing for the drop in temperatures.<\/p>\n
Rachel Minchoff, a humane police officer with the Department of Animal Protection, said a Code Blue will be issued in the city of Reading starting Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be issuing a Code Blue in the city of Reading from the 15th to the 18th,\u201d Minchoff said.<\/p>\n
A Code Blue means conditions are cold enough to be dangerous, especially for pets left outdoors.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this time, animals feel just like we do, especially our pets that are used to living indoors, like our cats and dogs,\u201d Minchoff said. \u201cAt this time, I would be really careful of having your dog outside for more than 15 to 30 minutes for potty breaks or quick walks.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa \u2013 After a brief break from winter-like weather, colder temperatures are moving back into Berks County,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[214,128,130,129,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-87259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-reading-city","10":"tag-reading-city-headlines","11":"tag-reading-city-news","12":"tag-reading-area"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}