ROAD WARRIORS
Town highway crews stay on job while adapting to new realities
Amid a pandemic that has most people staying home, town highway crews in the Ulster County are adapting to changes in an occupation that still requires getting out on the road.
Rosendale Highway Superintendent Robert Gallagher said expectations for the year have shifted away from some maintenance projects for his personnel roster, which includes eight highway workers and two buildings and grounds employees. At present, Gallagher is rotating crews so that only half work each week.
“I split up my buildings and grounds crew so I only have one guy,” Gallagher said. “So he is the only one to handle any building catastrophes or building maintenance stuff.
“So the mowing that we’ve done in the past might not get done on a weekly basis. It might get done on a biweekly basis or a triweekly basis,” he said.
A requirement to limit vehicle occupancy to one person is eas
ier for some jobs than others, Gallagher said.
“It all depends on the job,” he said. “Right now with the sweeping, it’s one guy in the sweeper, one guy in the dump truck, and one guy in the water truck.”
One job that may not get done at all in 2020 is the removal of weeds and debris from areas along the Rondout Creek.
“We might not have the hiring of any kids this year,” Gallagher said. “We’ve been averaging six or seven [seasonal employees] the last several years.”
Town of Saugerties Highway Superintendent Douglas Myer has a schedule that alternates his personnel into nine-person crews each week.
“We’re not starting any major projects or anything,” he said. “All part-timers are laid off until this is done.”
Keeping the Saugerties Highway Department’s work areas and vehicles disinfected has been the highest priority for the past two weeks, Myer said.
“We have a person ... and that’s all this guy does from 7 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon,” he said. “We purchased a mist machine that the hospitals and schools use. It will fog the area, and within 13 seconds, everything is killed.”
Myer said scheduling changes have been made without interrupting any major projects, but he isn’t sure what the impact will be on plans for the remainder of the year.
“Right now, you’re catching highway departments between seasons, coming out of winter and going into spring,” Myer said. “Right now, that’s a tough question to answer.”
Town of Ulster Highway Superintendent Frank Petramale has 19 employees, also divided into alternating schedules. He said he feels fortunate that a majority of them are fire company volunteers who understand the need to take precautions in emergency situations.
“They deal with these issues long before it’s an epidemic,” he said. “On a daily basis, they know to take the proper safety precautions and have the proper safety equipment at all times. They are doing everything that’s recommended, and they’re functioning normally.”
Petramale said that depending on how long restrictions remain in place, there could be a reduction in paving that was planned for this summer. He noted, though, that the mild winter allowed some projects to be completed already.
“Not that there’s a good thing about the situation, but this is a slow period, and as we saw the other day, we can still have snow,” he said. “Because of the weather prior to the [virus] outbreak, we got a lot of projects done that we might not have done if there was snow on the ground.”
In Woodstock, concerns have been raised by town Highway Department employee Cody Chase, who last week said there had been no separation of employees or other steps to prevent the potential spread of the coronavirus.
“We had three guys in one truck the other day,” Chase said. “I called them back and said, ‘Take separate trucks.’ We only had two available, so I had one guy do a different job until a third truck became available.”
Chase also said work assignments have been given to employees inside the Highway Department building and that social distancing guidelines are not being followed.
Woodstock Highway Superintendent Mike Reynolds said state regulations have been followed.
“The crew is met at the door and given their duties for the day,” he said. “They have their protective gloves and their masks. They are in the vehicles singularly, and whenever they have to do anything, they are doing the separation.”
Reynolds also said all common surfaces are wiped down at the end of each day.
“We’re [sanitizing] all the handles and everything inside the buildings,” he said. “Every night, we’ve been spraying stuff down, all the normal surfaces, so that the solution will dry on the handles overnight.”
Town Supervisor Bill McKenna said efforts to adhere to state requirements are being taken seriously in Woodstock.
“Individual vehicles have been made available,” he said. “[Employees] have been instructed to wipe down the vehicles when they’re done with them . ... Hopefully, they are following suit.”
McKenna said all other town departments have altered work practices to divide personnel between the office and their homes.
“The courts ... [and] assessors are all working at home at this point,” he said. “The Building Department has been put into two shifts, so they’re cut in half . ... The clerks are working with a reduced staff, sharing duties. My staff [has] one working that is working fully at home, and the other is working partially at home.”