GOSHEN - In one of the first tastes of winter this season, Mother Nature dished out a dose of reality over the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday weekend.  With temperatures hovering around the freezing mark for most of the day, the falling rain coated anything it came in contact with in a layer of ice.

Just before 9PM last night, an ice laden hemlock tree on South Chesterfield Road (just up from Washington Road) cracked about six feet from its base and came to rest on nearby power lines.  Goshen firefighters were called to the scene by the Goshen Police department to assist in closing down South Chesterfield Road between Dresser Hill Road and Cherry Street.  Traffic was rerouted through Hammond Acres while a crew from National Grid cut the tree off the power lines.  The Goshen Highway department was also called in to help remove the rest of the tree from the roadway once the scene was rendered safe.  Responders could hear the sounds of cracking branches in the surrounding woods as heavy branches gave way due to the extra weight of the ice.

The roadway was closed for approximately one hour.