WATERVILLE — It wasn’t just cars off the road that kept firefighters and police officers busy during Friday’s snow storm.

Drivers waiting at the city’s busiest intersection were not only delayed by the sticky snow on the ground but by the snow that stuck to the small lenses positioned next to the traffic lights, high above the street.

Many people think the cameras pointed down on vehicles are used to monitor speed or catch drivers slipping through red lights, but they are actually used for detecting traffic and changing the lights, said Mark Turner, director of the Waterville Public Works Department.

When the snow is wet, and the wind isn’t strong enough to blow it off, it can block the camera lenses and prevent the traffic lights from changing from red to green.

“When a car is sitting there more than 20 seconds, the camera activates the sensors and changes the lights,” Turner said. “There is on occasion a day like today where the lenses could become covered a little, and that may cause momentary malfunctions in the system.”

The Waterville Police Department received calls Friday about the lights not changing at the Post Office Square intersection, Sgt. Alan Main said. The green lights stayed green, and the red lights stayed red.

“It creates another hazard for traffic,” Main said.

It also created one more thing for the Waterville Fire Department to do on a day when many cars and trucks slid off the roads. Workers used a fire truck and an extendable brush to remove the snow from the camera lenses.

The city is in the process of upgrading its traffic lighting system at all 23 intersections, Turner said. The multi-million dollar project, which is scheduled to be completed by October, he said, will allow technicians to control the traffic lights from a central computer, instead of having to travel to the intersections to make changes.

Turner said he hopes the upgrades come with a mechanism to prevent snow from accumulating on the cameras.

Erin Rhoda — 474-9534

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