The National Guard provided trucks to to City last week to help make up for banged up
equipment, and National Guard members from Massachusetts came this week to help dig
out fire hydrants.
Chelsea DPW crews and equipment performed in exemplary fashion through the first snowstorm on Jan. 26, but three storms later, things aren’t coming as easy and now crews from the National Guard and New York and New Jersey have come in to help the City remove snow.
“Unlike the first storm, our equipment has now taken a beating with three additional storms since the first one,” said Joe Foti of the DPW. “We have about half of our equipment that is usable now and we’re trying to repair the rest. We need a good 10 days of nothing to get back to normal, that includes the guys who have been working. They’ve been working non-stop. Even when there’s no snow, we’ve had at least two guys on overnight for snow removal operations.”
The National Guard did sent in two trucks last week to help make up for some of the City’s broken equipment.
Other National Guard crews were around this week to help the Fire Department dig out hydrants from under snow banks.
Meanwhile, snow removal operations were in full speed overnight this week.
On Tuesday night, crews were scheduled to remove snow from the City Hall area during the overnight hours. More such operations are expected throughout the week.
Foti said the forecast looks good for now, but he cringes at the thought of a heavy rain event this weekend.
“The fortunate thing is they were predicting on Tuesday we would get 6-8 inches and it turned out to only be a dusting,” he said. “However, I did get a report of a rain event this Sunday, but it’s too early to tell. If I had to choose, I’d have to choose snow over rain. All of the catch basins and street drains are covered with snow.”
Seth Daniel can be reached at [email protected]
The City announced that due to the narrow passage ways on many two-way streets in Chelsea, it would begin a Pilot Program on certain streets to make them temporarily one-way streets. The following list of streets will become one-way starting today and going through March 31.
- Heard St. (from Bryson Rd. to Spruce St.)
- Franklin Ave. (from Jefferson Ave. to Spruce St.)
- Lafayette Ave. (from Spruce St. to Warren Ave.)
- Clark Ave. (from Webster Ave. to Eleanor St.)
- Gerrish Ave. (from Broadway to Highland St.)
- Library St. (from Highland St. to Broadway)
- Marlborough St. (from Broadway to Highland St.)
- Grove St. (from Willow St. to Highland St.)
- Watts St. (from Lynn St. to Highland St.)
- Watts St. (from Willow St. to Highland St.)
- Berma Rd. (from Exeter St. to Normandy Rd.)