Towns coping with near-record snowfall

By Mike Lange
Staff Writer

    With February going into the history books as the coldest and one of the snowiest winters in recent history, most public works crews are dealing with the challenges of keeping the streets clear with few problems.
    Some budgets are running close to the edge and dwindling sand and salt supplies are common, however.
    In Greenville, Town Manager John Simko said that while the last predicted blizzard missed his community, “Drifting and just the sheer size of snowbanks is the major hazard to motorists.”

    The public works crew have been busy hauling snow away with the front-end loader. “As a matter of reference, it took the crew a day and a half to remove most of the pile behind the emergency services building and about the same amount of time behind the (Harris) drugstore,” Simko wrote in his report to the board of selectmen.
    On the plus side, there have been no major equipment problems for the past few weeks, he added.
    Unfortunately, the same can’t be said about the town of Dexter.
    Public Works Director Eric Campbell said that the engine blew up in the International plow truck, costing the town $10,000, and his department is already $15,000 over budget in its overtime account. “It’s been one thing after another. We had to replace a caliper on a truck and that cost us $2,000. We’ve had other breakdowns, but they’ve been fixable within a day,” Campbell said. “Our guys are coping with it pretty well, considering the hours they’ve put in.”
    One non-snow related accident flooded and iced over part of Church Street last week when a broken pipe flooded the basement of an unoccupied house on nearby Prospect Street. “The water came right out of the house and made its own path to Church Street,” Campbell said.
    In Dover-Foxcroft, Town Manager Jack Clukey said that the town’s sand pile is going down faster than expected, but the public works crew hasn’t run into many unexpected issues. “We’ve adjusted the salt-sand mix somewhat, but we’re fortunately that we have our own gravel pit. We could open it in the winter if needed. We’ve had more snow this year, but not as much rain and ice as last winter,” Clukey said.
    The Dover-Foxcroft public works equipment hasn’t had any major problems, Clukey added. “We’ve had some minor repairs, some of which were taken care of by the crew. Our budget is on track,” he said.
    The town of Guilford subcontracts its snowplowing to Lawson Landscaping of Dexter, but is responsible for sanding the roads, said Town Manager Tom Goulette. “Our sand pile is lower than it’s been in quite a while,” Goulette said. “Last year, we had a lot of ice, but we weren’t sanding as frequently as we are this year.”
    Goulette said that he’d like to see the pad at the sand pile expanded so the town can stockpile more in the future.
    The town’s 2005 Sterling truck will have to be replaced eventually, Goulette said. “It’s rusting, they don’t make them anymore and parts are getting hard to come by,” he said.
    The only unexpected breakdown was a pump in the Bobcat loader, which cost $1,340 to replace, Goulette said. “That was unexpected. It’s only three years old,” he said. “When you have a winter like this, anything can happen. I think we’ve been fortunate, but it’s not over yet.”