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Date: 11/16/2022
HUNTINGTON – Highway Superintendent Charles “Chip” Dazelle said he is worried about this winter with only two full-time employees, including himself, and nobody applying for positions to plow roads.
“If we don’t get anybody and nothing happens, it’s going to be totally impossible to plow the whole town and get it done. I’ve got 37 miles of road, 25 miles of blacktop and 12 dirt,” Dazelle said.
One of the Highway Department job openings, which are posted on the “Town of Huntington MA” Facebook page, is for a temporary full-time highway truck driver, equipment operator and laborer. The applicant must possess a Class B commercial driver’s license with air brake endorsement and have heavy equipment experience. The second job is for an on-call 1-ton pickup driver for plowing snow.
Applicants interested in either job or wanting more information, may call Dazelle at 977-2434 or email highway@huntingtonma.us.
Dazelle said town jobs used to be sought after, but with a widespread labor shortage and other towns paying more, it’s hard to attract workers.
“I haven’t had one person contact us. Last time we got one applicant. I’ve had nobody apply so far for the temporary job. You used to have lines of people lined up for highway jobs. It’s not that way any more,” Dazelle said.
“I know we’re not the only town that’s in this predicament,” he said, adding, “When other towns are paying more, people aren’t going to be sticking around.”
Dazelle said one of the problems is that people don’t seem to recognize the urgency of the work they do.
“Nobody classifies us as first responders, but the highways are the first ones out and the last ones in. Without us, you’re not going to have school, police and fire,” said Dazelle, who also serves on the Huntington Fire Department. “[When the] roads are closed, we’re out. Trees are down, we’re out. If we’re not out, and the snow is a couple of feet deep, the state will be paralyzed.”
Dazelle said if the town department doesn’t get more help, “there are going to be roads that aren’t going to get plowed. There’s no way possible that they will get plowed. If there’s a storm that goes all day, maybe they’ll get plowed once. My concern is an ambulance. I think it’s going to be a bad situation.”
“It’s hard to take a vacation day here; you’re down a guy, leave one guy. When you get sick in the winter, down to two guys or one guy. We’re not supposed to get sick in the winter. Something’s got to be done here, some way, somehow,” Dazelle said, adding, “I don’t know the answer.”
Part of the ongoing problem is that costs keep going up, while the state has kept its Chapter 90 highway aid budget steady at $200 million. That has left local highway departments, which depend upon state aid, unable to keep up with the deterioration of roads,
Dazelle, who has been a long and loud proponent of increasing funds for Chapter 90 statewide, said Huntington only receives around $158,000 from the state, and with blacktop at $110 a ton, it doesn’t go far.
He said with 69 percent of the town’s budget going to the schools, there is not enough local taxpayer money available for the roads.
“People should know where the money goes. It’s not going to the Highway Department,” Dazelle said.