Clean-up Efforts Continue in Wake of Blizzard

By Adam Swift

Local public works crews have been put to the test this winter, with the latest blow coming with a blizzard on Monday that dumped a foot-and-a-half of snow on Chelsea and featured whipping wind gusts.

Crews were on the roads during the storm, and will continue clean up throughout the week, according to City Manager Fidel Maltez.

“What was very unique about the storm was the wind that came down with it,” said Maltez. “We were hearing gusts up to 60 mph, and because of that, there was a lot of snow in the air and it really lowered visibility, you couldn’t see more than one car ahead and it made traveling on the road really, really dangerous. I want to thank all residents for really hearing the concerns; I didn’t see many vehicles on the street, residents really took the notice to heart and a lot of people were off the streets.”

Because of the wind and amount of snow, Maltez said it was difficult for the DPW crews to keep up during the height of the storm.

“Our DPW workers were working all night to make sure that the streets were safe,” said Maltez on Tuesday morning. “The employees have done an amazing job opening the main streets up. The side streets are a little slower, we’re going to tackle it all day today and get to as many of the side streets as we can.”

Trash removal was delayed by one day this week due to the storm, but Maltez urged residents to be patient with the collection because of the amount of snow still on streets and sidewalks.

“Another thing that we learned from the last storm is that snow removal is going to be very important in order to free up parking and free up the sidewalks,” said Maltez. “We are starting snow removal tonight and are going to continue as much as possible.”

The city will prioritize the downtown business districts and the areas around the schools for snow removal and then work down into other areas of the city, Maltez.

“We are running out of space, we have a ton of storage from the last storm and not a lot of melting,” said Maltez. “We still have a lot of snow to pile up; a lot of our parks are now full. We do stage snow at Highland Park, at Voke Park, and unfortunately, most of the parks are now full.

“We are going to keep piling it up in many locations that are owned by the city and we may even ask big private property owners if we can stage snow on their properties.”

Maltez praised the public works staff for their work during the storm. “Many of them were here for over 24 hours, and it takes a lot of effort to keep up with such as a big storm like this, and many of them are going to continue to work tirelessly to make sure as many sidewalks as possible are cleared and that all of our streets remain safe for Chelsea,” he said.