Cumberland’s Murray calm before the storm
CUMBERLAND — A quick drop of powdery snow across the Blackstone Valley had road crews out late Sunday night getting ready for potentially slippery driving on the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Mayor William Murray, who went in to do some budget work at the closed Town Hall on Monday, commended local Highway Department workers for taking care of the storm in two rounds of work Sunday evening and early Monday.
The clean-up of about 3 or 4 inches of snow came as the town also eyes what could be the first major snow of the winter later in the week on Friday.
“It wasn’t too bad and our crews were out there and did a good job,” Murray said of the highway department’s weekend work.
“They went out sanded at about 8 or 9 p.m. on Sunday because of the slippery conditions,” Murray said after getting a report on the storm from Highway Superintendent Frank
Stowick. “He sent them home and then brought them back in at about 3 to 4 a.m. to clear the roads,” Murray said.
By morning the roads were clear and overall in “good shape,” Murray said.
Murray was hoping on Monday that this year will not see a repeat of last year’s storm pattern and the regular storms that kept snow clearing fleets busy nearly every weekend.
“My inauguration as mayor was on Jan. 4 and then I had the luxury of about two weeks of good weather and then the storm came that shut the state down,” he said.
The Blizzard of 2015 arrived on Jan. 26 and left New England states buried under 23 inches to 32 inches of snow depending on the location. Rhode Island was among the state’s declaring a snow emergency and shutting down travel to allow for a quick clean-up of the heavy snowfall.
After that, the snow continued to fall just about every weekend, Murray noted. “We had about 11 storms in all,” he said.
While all of that taxed local highway crews and the town’s plowing and sanding fleet, Murray said the end result was a 40-percent increase in the local snow removal budget, less than one would expect given how many times the crews were called out.
The town has approximately $350,000 set aside for snow removal this year and Murray is hoping last year’s weather pattern won’t be repeated as the winter continues.
“We are in pretty good shape this year so far,” he said. The costs can climb quickly, he noted, when the crews are sent out for slippery road conditions like those occurring Sunday night. “It’s the little storms that can be very demanding and hit your pocketbook. You have to go out and sand whether it is a major storm or a minor one,” he added.
As for the weather expected later in the week, Murray said the early reports are for a snowfall Friday night of about a foot of snow. That is still subject to the variations of New England weather patterns, he added.
“Depending on how the storm tracks later in the week, we could be in for a major storm,” Murray said. Hopefully that prediction will fall short of the storm occurring around that time last year. The town would host an emergency shelter for the area at the Wellness Center next to the high school off Mendon Road if the state declares a storm emergency and there is always help for local seniors at both the Senior Center and through his office at Town Hall, Murray said.
“We have a very active Senior Center and they keep tabs on a lot of people,” Murray said. Any senior or veteran with weather related questions can call the Mayor’s Office at Town Hall at 401728-2400 ext. 132, for more information on available resources, Murray said.