Swampscott completes storm clean up

SWAMPSCOTT – The last of the cleanup from the storm that ravaged the North Shore on June 3 was completed Thursday.Department of Public Works Director Gino Cresta said crews finished rebuilding a catch basin and making repairs to Thomas Road from the huge tree that fell on 65 Thomas Road during the storm.”When a tree fell it blew out the catch basin on Thomas Road because of the root system that ran under the catch basin,” he said. “It damaged the walls of the catch basin and the structure ended up collapsing.”After the catch basin was rebuilt, crews had to cut a section of pavement out of the street and repair the street, which was also damaged when the tree fell.Cresta said doing the project in-house saved the town money.”It cost us about $200 for materials,” he said. “I had two guys doing it during their regular shift so we didn’t have to pay overtime.”Cresta said the catch basin project was on the backburner for a while because the DPW crews were overwhelmed with storm cleanup.”There was a lot of damage from that storm,” he said. “There were so many tree limbs down from that one storm that we had our tree truck and another crew running every day for almost two straight weeks cleaning up tree branches in every area of town.”