“An Extraordinary Job”

In his briefing of selectmen on the Sunday/Monday snowstorm, Crabtree commended the efforts of public safety and essential workers

By Mark E. Vogler

Saugus, like the rest of Massachusetts, got whacked with the biggest snowstorm in years last Sunday and Monday, as an estimated 22 inches of snow-covered parts of town.

“We haven’t had this kind of snow in a long time,” Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree told the Board of Selectmen during a briefing on the town’s response to the storm at Tuesday (Jan. 27) night’s meeting.

“I was just alerted to the fact that this is the eighth-largest snowfall that we’ve had on record. So, we’re in the top 10 here. And Saugus seemed to get a little more snow than surrounding communities,” Crabtree said. “We got spoiled over the last five or six years, where we really haven’t had a lot of snow.”

But Crabtree said he was impressed with the way town employees – particularly the Police and the Department of Public Works – responded to the two-day storm. “Our public safety and essential workers did an extraordinary job,” Crabtree said.

The town manager said he believes that Saugus town employees who worked during the storm outperformed work forces in some of the neighboring communities. “I have DPW friends who work in other communities that live in Saugus and kind of bragged about how well we managed the storm, compared to other communities around us,” Crabtree told selectmen.

“I just want to commend everybody for all their efforts,” he said.

At the same time, Crabtree acknowledged, some residents may not have been happy in the storm’s aftermath. “Nothing is going to be perfect. There’s a lot of work involved. It’s tough on the residents because there’s a lot of snow and no place to put the snow,” Crabtree said.

“You can’t have a front-end loader go to every house in Saugus – with 9,000 homes – and take away the snow in front of their house,” he said.

Adding to some residents’ frustration was the impact of four to five more inches of snow falling after they had already plowed their driveways, only to have snowplows traversing local streets pushing more snow back in the plowed areas. “We’re doing the best we can do. I would suggest for residents, if we get one of these storms again, to hire private contractors to help plow the driveways,” he said. The other option would be to shovel or use a snowblower, the town manager added.

Crabtree noted that despite a concerted effort by his office to remind residents of the overnight parking ban that “We did ticket and tow a lot of vehicles.”

“I know towing the cars isn’t the best thing for residents, but I hope people understand that we have to do that for public safety reasons and to be able to get the streets opened up, clean off the sidewalks and get the schools ready,” he said.

“You have to have access to the curb, so we can push the snow back, and you can’t have vehicles there on those streets,” Crabtree said.

“Just a reminder to the residents: We have a parking ban overnight in the winter, every night, whether there is snow or not. I don’t think people realize that we enforce that. When we have snowstorms, it’s particularly an issue,” he said.

Motor vehicles must be moved from streets in order for the Town to have roadways cleared, plowed, salted and sanded for public safety and emergency vehicle access. Any vehicles remaining on the streets may be ticketed and towed, Crabtree’s office warned in a press release last week.

Limited parking is available in the Saugus Middle/High School upper lot, located at 1 Pearce Memorial Dr. The lot designated for emergency overflow parking is known as the “Upper Lot on Left” as you drive down Pearce Memorial Drive. Additional off-street parking is available at the Anna Parker Playground parking lot, located behind the Essex Street Fire Station at 120 Essex St.

Crabtree said his administration is interested in hearing from residents about concerns related to the town’s snow cleanup. “The town and DPW, building maintenance and public safety are out and continue to be out, handling complaints on different issues that are alerted to them,” Crabtree said.

“If you have issues, just let us know. Contact the DPW. We will continue to look at the issues that have been raised,” he said.

But Crabtree said he appreciates residents’ patience, as the work crews continue to work on the roads in the storm’s aftermath. “This will continue for the next week, at least, every day, trying to widen things [roads] and open intersections up,” the town manager said.

“There’s going to be a lot of cold weather, and that’s going to be a drain on the crews, because they will have to go out and salt at night when things freeze up. There really isn’t warm weather on the horizon right now,” he said.

Meanwhile, the DPW and other town work crews are bracing themselves for the possibility of a nor’easter hitting New England this weekend, which could add more snow. “Hopefully, we don’t get hit with that,” Crabtree said, dreading the possible scenario of putting more snow on top of the current snow from last weekend’s storm.