SNOW - Much done, much still to be done; Blizzard cleanup efforts to continue through weekend

As published in the Record Journal on Friday February 15, 2013

By Andrew Ragali
Record-Journal staff
aragali@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2224
Twitter:@AndyRagz

While the bulk of the blizzard cleanup effort has been completed in Meriden, Wallingford, Southington and Cheshire, crews are still working to ensure that roads are safe and businesses can operate normally, officials said Thursday.

Bob Bass, Meriden’s director of public works, said he expects work downtown to be done by this morning. Bass said large snow blowers, dump trucks and pay loaders will have worked through the night “if everything goes right,” bringing snow piled in parking lots and along the side of the street to the Hub. The effort, he said, will bring a sense of normalcy back to the downtown area, which has been difficult to navigate since the storm.

“We’ve certainly passed the worst and we’re on the upswing,” said Meriden Mayor Michael S. Rohde.

Rohde said crews will continue widening roads, clearing sightlines and cleaning around fire hydrants and water drains elsewhere in the city.

“Everybody’s focused on that,” he said, adding that people in many neighborhoods are working together to clear fire hydrants on their own. Rohde said he appreciates the effort, and hopes it will continue. “We’re trying to get the word out to people.”

Rohde is happy that with the hardest part of the clean-up effort over, he’s getting appreciative, not angry, emails, as he was earlier in the week.

“A lot of people have been very patient and understanding,” Rohde said. Some haven’t been as patient, throwing snowballs and making obscene gestures to plow truck drivers, he said. “I understand people are frustrated.”

With temperatures helping the snow removal process, Rohde said he thinks the city will be settled into its normal routine by next week.

In Southington, Town Manager Garry Brumback is “counting on Mother Nature to kick in.”

He said the cleanup effort will be complete by the end of the weekend, with “a few residual things” possibly left over next week. Today and Saturday, Brumback said, crews will concentrate on clearing bus stop areas and a few snow drifts that are affecting driver sightlines.

Brumback said cleanup downtown began early Thursday morning, calling the work “snow removal, not just snow pushing.”

Brumback said pay loaders are dropping snow into dump trucks, which bring the snow to the bulky waste transfer station, a dump site approved by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

“(Today) we will finish up downtown and inspect all of the remaining bus stops and bus routes in order to make sure there are no issues with school next week,” Brumback said. There is no school in Southington Monday or Tuesday.

The Fire Department has brought in volunteers to clear hydrants, Brumback said. Jason Harnish and Patrick Walesky, from Company 1, assisted several elderly residents with removal of snow from their sidewalks.

“We expect to be able to resume normal operations following the Presidents Day holiday,” Brumback said.

Wallingford Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. and Director of Public Works Henry McCully could not be reached for comment Thursday. During Wednesday’s Town Council meeting, Dickinson said work crews would be busy.

“I would believe we’d be putting in 10 hour days in order to complete the task that still needs to be completed,” he said.

Jason Zandri, a town councilor, said Wednesday night that the Fire Department is asking residents to “help out the department” by uncovering buried hydrants.

Roads have been successfully widened in Cheshire, said Town Manager Michael Milone. Crews are concentrating on public parking lots that “had to be put aside” immediately after the blizzard because roads were the first priority.

Milone said parking lots will be the emphasis of the cleanup effort “for the next couple of days.”

Clearing water drains and fire hydrants is another priority. Milone also said residents have until Sunday to clear their sidewalks.

By Monday, he’s confident the town will have completed the cleaning up.

The end of the cleanup effort will likely be a welcome sight for public works employees. In Meriden, Bass said employees slept at the public works garage several nights, and are just now getting the chance to go home and “get reinvigorated.”

With the rest, “they’re pretty fresh now,” Bass said, and ready to tackle cleanup downtown today.