To the editor:

On March 5th, 2026, in a letter to the Editor, Geri McManus asked why Lynn’s roads are so poorly plowed.

She has made the observation, like many people, that the roads in Peabody and Swampscott are plowed down to the pavement. While most Lynn roads are not.

In case the Lynn DPW doesn’t answer the question, I will attempt to do so. In my opinion, the primary reason for the poor plowing is that Lynn uses pickup trucks for the plowing while the adjoining communities use heavy-duty dump trucks, especially on the main roads into their city.

I agree with Ms. McManus’ observation. On Broadway heading to Peabody, there generally is an unplowed strip in the middle of Broadway to the Peabody line. This is because the little pickups can’t throw the snow from the middle to the edge. A large dump truck can do that in one pass. The most recent storm, the strip in the middle of Broadway, was there for several days after the storm moved on. This is not an issue just for the winter of 2025-2026, but for most recent winters.

I think one possible solution to the issue is to have the city offer a larger fee to the dump truck owners than the pickup truck owners. And have those larger trucks be hired for the main roads (Broadway, Eastern and Western Aves, Boston Street, Broad Street), unless those roads are plowed by the State DPW. One that is sizeable enough to attract the larger truck owners. If that is already done, maybe the differential needs to be increased. In addition, perhaps more oversight of the plowing needs to be done.

Or equip some of the larger DPW trucks with plows.

There is probably 5 months to get a solution to this, before the city starts hiring pickup truck owners for the winter of 2026-2027.

Bill Reilly,

 Lynn