With areas of the hilly, rural westernmost region of Massachusetts expecting almost a foot of snow by day’s end, it’s been a long Tuesday for public works departments across the Berkshires.
“We just ended the double shift. We had an overlapping shift from noon to 4 pm, so at this point, we have one crew on the main roads with the contractor assisting. Hopefully, we’re seeing the radar this clearing out by seven. So, after that, it's just going to be clean up time, and we expect that that's going to take a few hours. We are calling in another crew to come in at midnight, so we'll be here too throughout the night, getting ready for tomorrow morning," said Ricardo Morales, the commissioner of Public Works for Pittsfield, the 43,000-person community at the heart of the county. “We've seen about five inches, we're expecting another two inches. At this point, we have some snow cover on the quadrants, our neighborhood streets. They're having some snow cover. We have contractors out there in these quadrants, but it's just not enough time to keep up for all that they have to cover. On the main routes we have our employees, highway guys, supplemented with a couple of contractors with five-ton trucks as well.”
Morales says when it comes to effectively plowing each section of the city, the contractors Pittsfield has brought in for the neighborhoods are not created equally.
“The difference in plowing throughout the day has been, you can attribute that to the equipment each contractor has," he said. "Some contractors do not have spreaders, so you're not going to see the plowing and treating on these quadrants happen at the same rate that it happens in other quadrants. So, we have to keep an eye on that and send our resources to cover for them as we see fit.”
Today’s storm is something of a test for Pittsfield’s snow capabilities heading into the winter months. Morales says he’s optimistic about the city’s snow operation plans, saying they have worked out after staffing concerns from earlier in the year have been resolved.
“We have good material, good planning, good contractors," said the commissioner. "We were looking a little not too great a couple of months ago, with no one wanting to plow for the city- Half of what we have now is [where] we were two months ago. And we made some tweaks and adjusted our rates, adjusted our regular rules for applying for the city, and now we have essentially full force plowing for the city on our neighborhood streets. We are still down several positions in the highway department, but we are able to supplement that with some additional contractors as well. So, we're not hurting in that fashion through the winter. If we, you know, fill up those positions, it's just going to be better.”
While reports point to the snow tapering down, Morales is keeping an eye on the radar.
“Some of the forecasting a day ago, we were listening to Albany stations talking about some localized phenomenon occurring that would potentially bring in some ‘bonus snow’ to the Berkshires," he said. "Hopefully that doesn't happen. It doesn't look like it will be happening, but we were getting a little bit anxious about that as we were preparing for this.”
As snowy day becomes snowy night in Pittsfield, Morales is issuing the traditional warnings for any city dwellers taking to the roads.
“I think people need to drive very slow," he said. "It's still a storm, it's still on us. We're still expecting a couple of more inches, and people, stay out of the roads if you can. If you have to drive, just be- Drive slow.”
