By Sara Brown

 

Councillor-at-Large John R. Correggio requested that the Dept. of Public Works (DPW) superintendent appear before the council to examine the guidelines used for hiring plow drivers at Monday night’s city council meeting.

While most praised the city for how they handled blizzard Nemo, Correggio said he did receive some complaints about damage to parked vehicles and streets not being plowed properly.

“They did an excellent job for what they had,” Correggio said. “However, some residents have told me there were small trucks couldn’t handle the snow or didn’t know how to plow.”

Many of the councillors agreed that at the end of the storm the city was in good shape.

“We are lucky to have what we did,” Councillor-at-Large Robert Haas said.

Haas suggested that private contractors should be required to have signs that say Revere during a storm. “The DPW knows who is plowing for us but regular people have no clue,” Haas said.

Ward 1 Councillor Richard Penta agreed. “It’s a good idea. It makes them accountable,” he said.

“We need a uniform way of identifying private plow trucks,” Councillor-at-Large Anthony Zambuto added.

Some residents criticized that some trucks were too small for the workload. However, the council agreed that the city needed the small trucks.

“In my ward the streets are very narrow. Only small trucks can go down them. We need them,” Ward 3 Councillor Arthur Guinasso said.

“If you didn’t have small trucks, streets wouldn’t have been plowed,” Penta added.

Ward 4 Councillor Stephen Reardon agreed that going over the guidelines would be in the best interest of the city council. “I don’t know the guidelines. I would really like to see them. Once we see them, maybe we could make some suggestions,” he said.

Councillor-at-Large Jessica Giannino reminded the council that some residents shoveled their snow back into the streets.

“There are some residents who shoveled their snow back into the streets after the plows came by. So if someone came out after that they could be like ‘oh my god, my streets weren’t plowed,’ when really it was because your neighbor shoveled their snow into the street,” Giannino said. “We need to think about that for the next storm.”