ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
DPW Commissioner Andrew Hall climbs into one of the new snow plow trucks that are being used to successfully clean the streets of Lynn this winter.
BY THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — City Councilors answer plenty of complaint calls during snowstorms, but Monday’s street-clearing effort also drew praise for new and heavier plows dispatched onto city streets.
“We actually have a better plowing system — I hear people mentioning it,” said City Council President Dan Cahill.
The compliments are not an accident: Councilors led by Darren Cyr, Buzzy Barton and William Trahant Jr. spent 10 weeks studying the city’s response to last winter’s megastorms and pinpointed specific ways to improve city snow-fighting efforts.
Cyr and city Public Works Commissioner Andrew Hall said city crews and contractors get mixed reviews for snow removal efforts during last Friday’s storm and Monday’s snowfall. With school in session and no snow emergency declared, plow and truck drivers were forced to dodge parked cars as they worked to clear streets.
“With the Feb. 5 storm, I was a little disappointed, but with the second storm I was very happy,” Cyr said.
Monday’s storm was a relatively long-duration snowfall that made plowing efforts “tricky,” Hall said. But Hall and Cyr said heavier plow-mounted trucks made the difference during both snowfalls. The city has leased five International trucks each weighing 40,000 pounds and following the 2015 council review, DPW increased its hourly payment rates for contractors for heavy trucks from $78 to $148 an hour.
A higher payment rate means the city, said Hall and Cyr, is more competitive in hiring heavy truck owners to plow.
“The heavier the truck, the more efficient it is in pushing back heavy snow. In years past, we haven’t filled our contractor roster, perhaps because of rates,” Hall said.
In addition to rolling heavier trucks out onto local streets, the city has dropped a heavier burden on vehicle owners who do not heed snow emergency restrictions. The city activated blue snow emergency warning lights at major intersections on Monday and posted on its website a Monday 9 a.m. snow emergency banning on-street parking.
Acting Parking Director Robert Stilian said the city Traffic Commission last year increased the fine for “impeding snow removal” from $30 to $100 and the fine for onstreet parking during a snow emergency from $50 to $150.
Not every vehicle owner obeyed the snow restrictions on Monday: Stilian said 280 vehicles were towed to the city lot on Federal Street, where state-set towing charges total $155.
Bulfinch Street resident Daniel Macomber woke up on Tuesday morning to find his car towed from the Tracy School lot. He said he was not aware the emergency ban was lifted Monday evening, requiring drivers to remove their cars from school lots.
“I didn’t know to check the website,” Macomber confessed.
Cyr said all school lots should be clearly posted with a warning sign requiring drivers to remove vehicles by 6 a.m. on the day following a storm.
Hall said DPW workers take note of every snow-related complaint called into the Commercial Street extension office and respond to them, including ones from residents living on small and dead-end streets dotting the city.
He urged residents to stay off local streets, when possible, during storms so new equipment and heavier trucks and can do their jobs effectively.
Thor Jourgensen can be reached at [email protected].