By J. Michael Whalen
Times Staff
1/20/11
The town’s snow-and-ice removal budget keeps shrinking as the snowfall total continues to grow.

Department of Public Works Director Joe Lynch said last week’s storm likely would cost the DPW between $50,000 and $60,000 of its $150,000 snow-and-ice removal budget for the current fiscal year. He could not provide an estimated cost for the season to date.

The DPW looks to surpluses elsewhere in its budget, then to the town’s cash reserves, before asking Town Meeting to take on a snow-and-ice deficit, according to Lynch. He told the Times last month that carrying a large deficit into the next budget is a rare occurrence.

Lynch said the removal of the more recent snow, however, went much more smoothly than it did following the blizzard that hit in late December. He credited the DPW’s educational efforts through the media that let people know about the importance of removing their parked cars from the roads and not throwing snow from their properties onto the streets. Only a few cars had to be towed, he said.

“It was hugely successful. We have heightened awareness,” he said, adding that the school system also helped residents become aware of the DPW’s concerns, as well as the need to delay trash pickup for a day, through an e-mail blast it sent to parents.

Town Hall was closed the day of the storm and the public schools were closed Jan. 12 and 13.

Lynch said the DPW had 35 pieces of equipment – 19 town-owned vehicles and 16 contractors – that worked to remove downed trees, limbs, branches and wires from the streets in about 50 locations. He said the town received solid cooperation from NSTAR, Verizon and Comcast during those efforts.

“It worked out pretty darn well,” he said.

Lynch said sidewalks couldn’t be cleared until the following day because the wires, limbs and branches moved there were taking up space. The cluttered sidewalks were a factor in the schools being closed a second day, he said.

Police Chief Richard Wells Jr. said his officers also kept busy. He said starting with a transformer on Brook Road that blew at 3 a.m., police responded to more than 60 incidents involving power, wires or trees. Hillside Street was closed for a couple of hours, he said, and there was a break-in at 4 a.m. on Briarfield Road.

But like Lynch, the chief said motorists were smart about keeping off the roads.

“Traffic was definitely light. There was not a single accident,” said Wells, who added that police nonetheless were “tagging [cars] quite a bit” because of those who ignored the parking ban.

Mike Durand, a spokesman for NSTAR, said about 2,000 of the utility company’s more than 10,000 customers in Milton lost power Jan. 12 for anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Power was restored to all but a handful of customers by the following morning, he said.