Jerry Guthlein introduces Milltown Mel to the waiting crowd during the fourth annual Groundhog Day festivities in Milltown Feb. 2. Mel predicted an early spring during the event, held at the American Legion. PHOTOS BY SCOTT FRIEDMAN The crowds gathered early on the morning of Feb. 2 in the parking lot of the Milltown American Legion, over 200 strong, to hear the prediction from the town’s furry forecaster.

He emerged from his home with the urging of the local kids and the help of a dozen wranglers a little before 7:30 a.m., held high by his handler and personal assistant, Jerry Guthlein, for all to see. He squirmed around in Guthlein’s grasp in the still-rising sun, cranky from a lack of sleep during the warmer hibernation season. He looked around as the crowd cheered and “Also Sprach Zarathustra” blared, before momentarily consulting with Guthlein and the wranglers.

The quick conference then dispersed. Milltown Mel, the borough’s springtime soothsaying groundhog, had made his decision.

A groundhog mascot greets the crowd that turned out shortly after dawn to witness Milltown Mel’s prediction. “I say, once again, citizens of Milltown,” bellowed wrangler and borough deputy fire chief Jack Bicsko, on behalf of the mute Mel, “on this cold, cloudy day, no shadow did I see.”

“I’m happy to report, an early spring it will be,” Bicsko said, the crowd cheering at the news that spring is well in sight.

Punxsutawney Phil, eat your heart out.

Just four years into the groundhog prediction business, Milltown Mel, Guthlein and the wranglers are establishing a new winter tradition in a town known for its Fourth of July celebration.

The Milltown Groundhog Day celebration is an evolution of the Guthlein family’s own observance of the holiday. Guthlein, the owner of the Bronson & Guthlein Funeral Home in the borough, recalled that his wife, Cathy, was sick for a time and when he went to visit her in the hospital, the movie “Groundhog Day” was always on re-run. And when Guthlein asked how she was going, she would always say the same thing: “About the same.”

“You are like Bill Murray,” Guthlein would reply.

He promised her that when she got better, they would go out to Punxsutawney. They went years later, and ever since have celebrated the holiday, later deciding that Milltown needed a Groundhog Day event of its own. So they purchased a groundhog from a farm in Pennsylvania, naming him Milltown Mel, Guthlein said, “because it had a good flow.” And with the blessing of then- Mayor Gloria Bradford and Mel’s predictions, a borough tradition was born.

Residents young and old seem to love it.

Lifelong Milltown resident George Tighelaar said he enjoyed the celebration, even if he didn’t particularly likeMel’s prediction.

“I’m a skier,” he said. “I haven’t got much skiing in this year, and it doesn’t look like I am going to do that anymore.” Five-year-old Mason Bitalla has been to the Groundhog Day event every year. Bitalla brought peanuts for the groundhog this year and woke up at 4 a.m. in preparation for the event. Why?

“Because I wanted to see Mel,” he said.

With the crowds growing each year, many even braving last year’s winter storm to witness Mel’s prognostication, Guthlein said Milltown seems to be the perfect place for the annual celebration.

“Milltown is a little town, and where else could you get away with something like this?” Guthlein said. “Who else would come out at 7 in the morning on Feb. 2?”