Winter tests communities
Date: 2/9/2011
Feb. 9, 2011By G. Michael Dobbs
Managing Editor
SPRINGFIELD — Springfield has received 55 inches of snow and the winter isn't over yet. This winter has taken a toll on snow removal efforts and on the school year.
Mayor Domenic Sarno asked city residents to be patient about snow removal and to do their part in making sidewalks and streets passable.
Among the comments Springfield residents made through Facebook about the city's roads were the following:
• "Springfield is horrible! Glenoak Drive in Sixteen Acres is one lane! This is a street that gets my kids to school, can't even get by, God forbid when the buses come by."
• "Forest Park has a lot of multi families and apartment buildings with limited or no parking, so of course they have to park on the street, passing room is a real problem right now. Heck, even Longhill Street is missing a lane from the highway to Sumner Avenue. I sure hope we don't have a fire in the Cozy Corner section of Forest Park, because no way any fire trucks will fit down our streets. Ambulance, yes, fire trucks no way.
• "Well, our kids finally have a real winter to talk about. I am also in the Cozy Corner section of Springfield. Cars in opposite directions can pass, but one of them better be small. I echo the fear of a firetruck only being able to get to a small fraction of homes around my home. I've been to many other neighborhoods in the city [that] are in the same situation."
• "I'd guess that 90 percent of the city's streets have lost half a lane at least. Is there plow drivers school? There really should be."
Sarno and Department of Public Works Director Al Chwalek conducted a press event in Clyde Street in the city's North End neighborhood on Feb. 3 with a bucket-loader and a series of dump trucks as a backdrop. The crew was scooping up excess snow that had turned the two-way street into a one-lane thoroughfare and trucking it to one of several locations in the city.
The city is dumping snow on the site of the former York Street Jail and can put it on the athletic fields of several schools, Chwalek said. He added that in a recent meeting with Commissioner Kenneth Kimmell of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, the city received permission to dump snow into the Connecticut River. Chwalek said the city did not need to take that step at this time, but added the city has maintained a "tip hole" on the Mill River for such a situation.
Sarno and Chwalek explained that what was happening on Clyde Street was being repeated around the city.
The series of winter storms that have battered Western Massachusetts have taken their toll on municipal coffers. Sarno said the city has spent about $2 million in snow removal efforts so far this season. Chwalek pointed out the crew working on Clyde Street was costing the city $400 an hour. If larger equipment is involved, the hourly rate can soar up to $1,000 an hour, he added.
Chwalek said where the snow removal crews go depends upon priorities set by police and fire officials.
The state allows municipalities to deficit spend to remove snow. With Springfield facing a one-two punch of a more than a $40 million deficit in the coming fiscal year and a proposed cut in state assistance, Sarno said he would look to any additional means to offset the cost of the winter.
He said, "If there is a dime available, we're going after it."
The storm that dumped 22 inches on the city on Jan. 12 cost $450,000 by itself, Chwalek said.
With piles of snow approaching six and seven feet high, Sarno asked the public to use common sense when driving and parking. The mayor said the city's police are "towing and ticketing very aggressively," and the Ordinance Squad is working with homeowners to clear sidewalks, rather than fine them. He asked that residents dig out fire hydrants and put their garbage barrels at the end of driveways instead of in the street.
*** The winter weather has had a real impact on school schedules. Azell Caavan, the Springfield Public School chief communications officer, told Reminder Publications, "We had built five snow days into the school year that was scheduled to end June 17. We have used seven snow days to date. That means, at this point, students have two days to make up. The general practice has been to add those days to the end of the school year. However, conversation in school districts throughout the state this winter has included the option of looking at other alternatives, such as using vacation days.
"The Springfield school district has not yet made any decisions about how snow days will be made up but will consider all of the options available."
Before the School Committee meeting on Feb. 3, School Superintendent Dr. Alan Ingram expressed his concern about simply adding days to the end of the school year.
He explained that school days are needed to prepare students for the May Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test and he was working with the state to see how the school schedule could be changed to benefit students the most.
