Saugus DPW superintendent frustrated over being sidelined during snowstorm

SAUGUS – As the snow fell Thursday Department of Public Works Superintendent Joseph Attubato could do nothing but watch and that did not sit well with him.”This is the first storm I haven’t been involved with in a long, long time,” said Attubato, who is out of work recuperating from a recent operation. “But we’ve got men who have been doing this for years, we’ll be fine.”Attubato may have thought he wasn’t calling the shots because he wasn’t sitting at his desk barking orders and fielding phone calls but even from his hospital bed he was in the mix.Attubato spoke with the Town Manager and his crew by phone and made sure everyone knew the department was ready to handle the snowstorm.”We’ve got all the equipment ready and the minute it starts snowing we’ll call in the contractors,” he said Thursday morning. “Pat Cardalisco is in charge.”Lost in Monday’s lengthy debate over funding the teacher contract was the fact that four other articles were disposed of.Not only did meeting members vote to refer funding the contract, they also referred purchasing a new cruiser for the police department’s patrol supervisor.Chief James MacKay was looking for $47,000 to buy a new SUV but meeting members decided if they had the money they would prefer it to be spent on putting an officer on the street rather than a new car.Town Meeting members did, however, vote to bond $452,000 to light up their lives. Town Manager Andrew Bisignani was looking for funds to purchase the town’s streetlights. He admitted he put the article on the warrant largely because the town’s auditors suggested it. He said in the long run it would probably save the town pennies but it would be a savings nonetheless and the voters approved it 37-1.Meeting members also decided to put some money where their feet are when it amended a motion to spend all of the town’s Chapter 90 money on road repairs. The group voted unanimously to shave no less than a total of $180,000 off the more than $900,000 earmarked for roadways to be used specifically for sidewalk repairs, upgrades and installation.While Town Meeting did not vote to fund the teacher contract, which means the town can’t set its tax rate, Bisignani said, “the game isn’t over yet.”Bisignani said he has some options available and hopes to go back to the next special Town Meeting with a plan.”We may be able to fund (the contract) without having to dip into the GIC (Group Insurance Commission) savings,” he said. “We can’t go on indefinitely without setting a tax rate.”Selectmen helped drop the final piece into place for the Shops at Saugus when it voted not to purchase a 150-foot wide strip of land that abuts the old Caruso Diplomat property.Attorney Richard Magnan told selectmen Tuesday the state was ready to hand the tiny piece of property over to Regency, the entity behind the planned upscale strip mall, but protocol required it to be offered to the town first.”DECAM (Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Management) first must offer the surplus property to the town for a possible public purpose,” he said. “You would have to note what the public purpose would be, what the time line would be and you’d have to pay the value.”Magnan said the property was reviewed by the Inspector General and valued at $3,450,000.”So if the town is willing to purchase the property it would have to have a purpose and pay $3.45 million,” he said.Selectman Michael Kelleher said if the town had $3.4 million it would be looking at things other than purchasing a strip of property next to a shopping center.”