With two plowable snow events already in the books for the 2013-14 winter season, the Lynn Public Works Department has already had two chances to show the people of the city that they are ready no matter what winter dishes out this year.
Ahhhh, but they’ll be even more ready in the weeks to come, according to Interim Public Works Director JT Guacher.
“I think they first two storms, three days apart, went pretty well,” said Gaucher. “The salting operations went well and we had some challenges with the plowing, caused by cars parked on the streets overnight. The cars were ticketed, but not towed and that created some issues for the plows in clearing the streets, some places are just getting cleaned up now, but overall I think the crews and drivers did good with what they had to work with.”
Gaucher said the department has received some complaints and some accolades as well, which he feels is fair. But he is looking forward to the new equipment that has been on order and should begin showing up in Lynn in the next few weeks.
“Mayor Kennedy was le to get the department $200,000 through a supplemental appropriation, which we are using to purchase six new F-250 pickup trucks with plows on them,” said Gaucher. “Those will be used by the route supervisors and will replace trucks that are 15 years old and older. We’re also going to be getting two new dump trucks, that will be equipped with plows and sanders, so that will give us enough equipment to properly respond to the storms as they come up.
“I don’t have a crystal ball, so I have no idea how much more snow we’re going to get,” said Gaucher. “I do know that despite these two small storms, we still have some money in our snow and ice removal budget and we’ve already been authorized to overspend that line item, as needed and we most likely will.”
That said, Gacher believes the city will be well-prepared for the storms, when they come.