The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Towns tackle snow removal
Officials and residents alike praised the efforts of the Cromwell Highway Department in handling the Thursday snow. But the same could not be said for state Department of Transportation crews.
The DOT is responsible for clearing major roads in town, including Route 372/Berlin Road and Route 99/Main Street. But well into mid-afternoon Friday, the condition of those two roads in particular was “deplorable,” Town Manager Anthony J. Salvatore said.
Beginning at the bottom of Exit 18 off Route 9, Main Street appeared to have been plowed once at 1:30 p.m. Friday. Drivers were proceeding cautiously — at or near 30 mph in most cases, as they made their way up a the road, which was covered with packed snow.
The intersection of West and Main streets was a mass of dirty, brown, churned-but-unplowed snow.
Salvatore said his office had received “several calls” commending the work of the town highway department, but also received “a number of complaints relative to the condition of the state roads.”
“In those instances, we have directed the people making those calls to get in touch with the DOT complaint line,” the town manager said just after 3 p.m. Friday. “For myself, I am very upset with the deplorable conditions of our state roads. I have no idea why they’re in the condition they’re in.”
Salvatore said that when he gets the opportunity, he is going to “attempt to ascertain why the state routes are in the this condition.”
DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said the department has had every resource out on the road since 4 a.m. Thursday, keeping the maximum number of state trucks working into Friday morning.
“I think people need to take a step back and realize that we’ve just had a blizzard, and it’s going to take a little bit of time for things to get back to a reasonable condition,” Nursick said. “We just had a massive snowstorm.”
Nursick said that overall, the DOT crews did “a very good job of keeping up with the storm for the duration of the storm and after the storm.”
“Frankly, within 24 hours, we’ve had the roads pretty much back to normal,” he said Friday evening. “Secondary state roads take a bit longer, because there’s less traffic and in a lot of locations there’s not much sun exposure, which helps the materials get down to bare asphalt, but I’d put our roads up against town roads any day of the week, quite frankly.”
Salvatore, however, said the town roads in Cromwell were in much better condition Friday than state roads.
“I am very pleased with the job our public works department did in keeping our local roads open and clearing them,” Salvatore said.
The crews began working at 5 a.m. Thursday and continued around the clock until they were dismissed at noon Friday, Salvatore said.
There was one minor accident involving a town truck, which was identified as 2002 International six-wheel dump truck by Assistant Director of Finance Sharon DeVoe. The truck struck a utility pole at the corner of Court Street and Cannata Drive, Police Chief Denise Lamontagne said.
No one was injured in the 8 p.m. crash, but the pole had to be replaced by Eversource crews, Lamontagne said. The accident remains under investigation, she said.
Portland First Selectwoman Susan S. Bransfield said she had heard from a number of people — including in both the fire department and the town highway department — that “the state roads in town were not in their usual condition.”
That was not the case with town roads, however, Bransfield said.
“We had a number of people who contacted this office to say how pleased they were with the work that was done by our highway department in keeping the streets and sidewalks clear,” she said.
In fact, Bransfield said she had received so many positive comments that she drafted a letter commending the efforts of the crews and the supervisors in the highway department and telling them “how so many people were happy with the job they had done.”
While other towns surrendered to the forecast, East Hampton Town Hall remained open throughout the day.
“This is East Hampton. Short of the apocalypse, we don’t shut down,” Town Manager Michael Maniscalco said Friday morning.
Town Hall did get a lot of phone calls asking whether the building was open, but very few residents followed up by coming into the building, the town manager said.
As to the storm itself, “We got a lot of snow. A lot,” Maniscalco said, adding that it was nothing out of the ordinary.
“We’re pretty adept at dealing with these kinds of storms,” Maniscalco said. “We have a great Public Works Department and a great staff that keeps the trucks on the road. And the police are very helpful at keeping vehicles and other debris off the roads.”
He acknowledged that it worked so well because “this truly is a team effort.”
However, Maniscalco acknowledged that no matter the circumstances, it’s not possible to please everyone.
When a plow apparently pushed snow up onto a person’s property, a family member wrote an email to Maniscalco demanding the snow be removed or that the town manager be fired. Breaking News Editor Viktoria Sundqvist contributed to this report.