SAUGUS — Resident Allan Alpert spoke to the Board of Selectmen of concerns regarding the lawns on Davis Court, stating that the grass has been contaminated and killed by road salt during the winter months.
“This past winter, during the salting of the town’s streets, everybody’s lawn got contaminated with salt and killed the grass from the curbstone up about 2 to 2 1/2 feet,” Alpert said.
He presented the Board with photos of the dead grass on Davis Court.
“I had my landscaper look at it and he said what has to be done is it has to be dug up and replanted. And we don’t feel that this should be a burden on us since it wasn’t caused by us,” he said.
Alpert said there were only two ways this could occur: if the salt trucks were too close to either side of the street or if they did not change the spreader.
“Spreaders on a salt truck can go out as far as 30 feet. Well, if they’re salting Vine Street, you just can’t turn down Davis Court and salt it without changing the spreader,” Alpert said. “…Either way, it would be the negligence on the part of the town.”
Alpert also raised an issue with snow plowing, saying he had experience with it.
“What I do when the snow happens, I generally get out of my house before the plow even comes down, and I take my snow blower and go down the street so they can see where the curb is,” he said.
This year, Alpert said the plow would be 1 or 2 feet from the curb, despite his having cleared the area.
“The snow was out almost 4 feet from the curb… Every time the plow came down, he was out farther and farther and farther. If I didn’t get out on my side of the street to snow blow, we would basically have one lane down the middle of the street,” he said.
Alpert said that he drove around town and saw this issue on multiple streets.
After Alpert finished speaking, Chair Debra Panetta asked that he provide his name and address to Town Manager Scott Crabtree so he could speak with the necessary people.
