Lynn crews plowing ahead

LYNN – City crews are continuing to plow and remove snow in the wake of Tuesday’s blizzard, progressing to the smaller streets and dead-end roads.Meanwhile, Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said Thursday that her office and the Department of Public Works are working to address complaints, but also asked that people remember that crews have had just two days to remove 2 feet of snow from the city streets and sidewalks.”We did get a number of complaints, but I think the Department of Public Works is doing a fantastic job and working extremely hard,” Kennedy said.” We’re working hard to address (complaints) and am sure the DPW is as well.”A blizzard late Monday into late Tuesday night dropped 2 feet of snow on the city and region, prompting a statewide travel ban and local parking bans, closing businesses and schools and keeping public works crews busy plowing and sanding for the duration of the storm.Then the cleanup began.Schools remained closed Wednesday and Thursday as residents and the city shoveled out.But traffic was delayed throughout the morning Thursday as many workers returned to their jobs. There were reports of major delays along Lynnfield Street into Wyoma Square and crawling traffic along Lewis Street and in Central Square as drivers tried to navigate along narrowed roads bordered by high snowbanks (and the occasional plowed-in vehicle) and among cautious drivers on slushy streets.Mayoral Chief of Staff Jamie Cerulli said Thursday afternoon that many of the complaints received by the mayor’s office concerning snow plowing came from residents of small, dead-end streets that had not yet been plowed. The office also received complaints from several residents who didn’t realize they lived on private ways; either because they were new to the neighborhood or assumed that since trash was collected on their street, it was a public way that would be plowed.Kennedy said the office received about two-dozen complaints via different media – more than usual than in a typical storm but not entirely unexpected.”You can almost measure the number of complaints by the amount of snow you get,” Kennedy said. “The complaints go up exponentially with each inch.”