DPW: Most Roads Plowed Before Noon on Wednesday in Melrose

After snow caused some problems for Melrose commuters Wednesday morning, the city had plowed the majority of roads before noon, according to Department of Public Works Director John Scenna.

Scenna did not report any significnt issues related to the plowing operations, as there were no equipment failures while tending to the snow that accumulated on city streets and sidewalks. "We had a very good storm from a fleet perspective," Scenna said.

The DPW was prepared for the storm and by 4:30 a.m., 10 sanders were on the road treating city streets throughout the storm, according to Scenna. "By 6 a.m. all the custodians and facility managers were out taking care of their buildings as well," Scenna added.

"It was a chemical storm for us. We sanded and salted all the roads. Obviously, we do all the main drags first as our highest priority, followed by the hills and school districts and then we get into the side streets."

By 11:30 a.m., the majority of the city's roads were "well acceptable," Scenna said.

"We only had a portion of the staff on. The balance of the staff was dispatched to other daily activities like recycling...picking up Christmas trees and we had a few other things going on this morning," Scenna said. "We did not have to deploy our entire work force with this level of storm, but if the storm did increase and the temperature did not rise by 8 or 9 a.m., we were ready with our entire work force if that situation came up."

When it comes to more significant snowstorms, Scenna explained that he keeps a close eye on Ward 7 because the higher elevations in that section of the city can present problems. However, for this storm there were no issues to report.