LYNN — With snow-covered roads and poor driving conditions extending into Friday, City Council President Darren Cyr said the city failed in its plowing response to a massive snowstorm that started on Wednesday night and stretched into the following afternoon.
“Bottom line: we got an F,” said Cyr. “We did a lousy job.”
City officials, including Mayor Thomas M. McGee, Cyr, and leadership in the city’s public works department started talking about the poor plowing during the two-day snowstorm — which dumped more than a foot of snow in Lynn — at about 5 a.m. on Friday, Cyr said.
“The mayor and everybody are working towards a solution,” said Cyr. “This isn’t the first time something like this has happened. Obviously, we failed plowing the streets and we’re going to fix the problem. It won’t happen again. You’ve got my guarantee on that.”
While there were some places where the streets were cleared of snow, there were a number of places that were still in rough shape on Friday, said McGee, who said he had been driving around the city for most of the day in order to assess the condition of the roads.
“It’s not acceptable to see, particularly some of the main roads and some of the side roads, not handled in the way we expect,” said McGee. “It was definitely inconsistent in terms of how the storm was handled.”
For example, parts of the Highlands, hilly areas, most of Ward 2, and parts of Ward 1 were cleared sufficiently, but a number of main streets, such as Boston Street, and Eastern, Western, and Franklin avenues, needed more attention than they received, McGee said.
“It’s a problem,” said McGee. “That’s not acceptable in terms of how we expect the roads to be handled. We will reconvene with a group following this weekend to talk about what went wrong and how we can address those concerns.”
Lynn Public Works Commissioner Andrew Hall blamed sloppy streets on the city’s inability to hire the number of private contractors determined to be required to plow Lynn streets.
Hall said the city seeks to sign up 250 private contractors operating vehicles ranging from pickups to heavy equipment, including dump trucks, to plow a major snowstorm.
Contractor sign-ups for Thursday’s storm totaled 173 contractors, leaving the city short-handed in its ability to supplement city heavy equipment with contracted plowers working to clear city streets.
“What hampered us is we had quite a fewer number of contractors. It takes longer and some things fall between the cracks,” Hall said.
While Ward 2 Councilor Rick Starbard was pleased with the plowing that took place throughout the neighborhoods in his ward, he said councilors who represent other areas of the city have been fielding a lot of complaints.
“The guys that did my neighborhood, from what I heard, did a good job,” said Starbard. “Talking with some of the other councilors, it almost seems like West Lynn might have had more problems than other parts. I don’t know what it is that affected the consistency.”
Starbard said the city needs to address that issue — in terms of roads being sufficiently cleared throughout the city — ahead of future storms.
It could be a matter of looking at what type of equipment should be sent out to various parts of the city, Starbard said, explaining that small pickup trucks have more difficulty with handling snow that has been packed down than heavier equipment.
In addition, Starbard said contractors may be more inclined to work for other communities, based on higher pay or being sent out more often to clear roads during snow events.
“I don’t know if we’re not getting enough contractors with heavy enough equipment,” said Starbard. “I don’t know if Lynn needs to look at their pay scale compared to other communities to make sure we’re competitive with other communities. We need to be competitive.”
While McGee agreed the plowing issues were largely due to having much fewer contractors than two years ago, he said how much the city is paying them does not appear to be the issue.
“We’re comparable with what other communities are paying,” said McGee, citing a conversation he had with Michael Bertino, the city’s chief financial officer. “Rates were increased a couple of years ago to handle that. It’s not clear that’s the issue.”
Hall agreed, saying that the city’s contractor rates “are in line with other communities.” The city pays from $75 an hour to $190 an hour for equipment ranging in size from plow-mounted pickups to front-end loaders used to remove large volumes of snow.
Whatever the reasoning, the city was left with substantially fewer contractors than it had during similar-sized storms two years ago, which McGee said was the main reason for the subpar plowing this week.
“The contracts go out every year to all of the contractors that went out in the past,” said McGee. “We anticipate the same plow companies that were working before would be available. A number of them did not re-up. That’s part of the issue — there are a number of places that these plow companies can work. That’s what caused the problems.”
Hall said snow removal costs for the city on Thursday ran roughly $250,000, including contractor costs.
The decision to not tow vehicles left parked on city streets to make snow plowing easier was “not a big issue” on Thursday, Hall said.
During past storms, the city has warned drivers that vehicles left on local streets will be towed with the driver required to pay in cash state-set towing and storage fees.
The city declared a snow emergency parking ban starting Wednesday, 9 p.m. and ending Thursday, 7 p.m.
Drivers packed the Market Street commuter garage to capacity Wednesday night to get their cars off local streets. Hall said tickets were written for vehicles left on local streets, but the city did not order tows.
Cyr might have given the city a failing grade for its plowing response during this week’s snowstorm, but his fellow councilor, Brian LaPierre, a former schoolteacher, was more generous and appeared to be grading on a curve.
“There’s certainly room for improvement,” said LaPierre. “It was our first storm, our first test, and the teacher in me wants to give it an average grade. If I’m being honest, I’ve received several complaints and they are being dealt with accordingly.”