DPW set to weather any storm

LYNN – With the National Weather Service posting a winter weather advisory for tonight into Sunday, Public Works Commissioner Andrew Hall wants local residents and property owners to start thinking about snow and how it affects driving, parking and sidewalks during significant storms.Public Works crews have spread road salt on local city streets four times so far this year after temperature checks recorded freezing temperatures on road surfaces, but a plowable event – three inches or more of the white stuff – has yet to occur.The area may see some snow showers today, with the precipitation likely turning to rain Sunday.Hall is ready for when it does snow. This winter is the former Water and Sewer Commission engineer?s first serving as the seasonal general in the war against Old Man Winter. He is ready to send up to 50 city workers and 15 heavy city dump trucks and plows out onto city streets to clear snow.That army will be reinforced by rented trucks and a legion of plowing contractors who are paid $64 an hour and more, depending on how heavy a vehicle they are using, to clear snow. He has 180 plowing contractors but needs more owners of reliable, well-maintained vehicles to fill out plowing applications in Public Works? Commercial Street extension office.?Most will be driving pickups, but I would like to have 220 contractors total,” Hall said.He said the people who bear the greatest responsibility for clearing snow off streets are local residents who obey snow emergency parking bans and do their best to stay off local streets while plows and trucks work.?Be prepared to be delayed by the weather: Everyone needs to give themselves some breathing room,” Hall said.City officials make residents aware of snow emergencies by broadcasting announcements on stations, including AM 1230 and on Comcast Channel 3 and Verizon Channels 28 and 37. Blue lights located at intersections, including Western Avenue at Waitt Avenue and O?Callaghan Way at Walnut Street, will flash designating a snow emergency.School yards across the city are available during snow emergencies to provide temporary parking for residents without driveways. Residents are urged to check with schools in advance of storms to make sure a yard near their home is available for snow emergency parking.Drivers must remove their cars from school yards following snow emergencies to allow city crews to clear snow from the yards before school resumes. The Market Street commuter rail garage is also available for parking.Property owners and tenants are required under city ordinance to remove snow from sidewalks and create a path “a minimum of 42-inches wide.”Public Works plans to add five more heavy trucks to its fleet at the end of January when rental equipment will be replaced by lease-to-own vehicles. The city is paying $180,000 annually over the next five years to purchase the vehicles.