by Frank Schroth
Late this afternoon, the Board of Selectmen met in emergency session and voted unanimously on a recommendation of the DPW Director Joe Lynch to declare a town wide state of emergency. Mr Lynch along with Fire Chief Grant, Police Chief Wells, Consolidated Facilities Director Ritchie and Planning Director Bill Clark updated the Selectmen on the status of the town’s current situation regarding the impact of 70″ of snowfall in the last two weeks. Due to the “extraordinary situation,” Lynch has asked for support from the National Guard. The decision is driven by concerns for public safety.
The National Guard will assist with the digging out of hydrants, street widening, and snow removal. The street widening is being done to allow emergency apparatus to access all parts of town quickly and efficiently. Lynch noted that the Guard will come in with “a military attitude – a can do attitude.” They are here to widen roads and that is what they are going to do. The Guard may give as little as 2 ours notice that they are arriving. A triage plan is set up that will target main roads, then secondary roads, then neighborahood streets. Lynch said he would appreciate the public’s patience and noted that there will be inconvenience. Roads may be temporarily closed and traffic patterns altered. Lynch asked for the declaration so as to be absolutely clear that the town departments heads are in control of these operations.
Chief Grant said that the assistance in the street widening and clearing of hydrants is “vitally necessary.” He said that due to narrow road conditions, the departent is holding back on sending out the ladder truck “for the first time in my career.” He said it will be deployed, but only after further assessement of a situation.
Chief Wells said that Milton was in the top 5% of towns hit hardest by the recent succession of snow storms. The department understands that people are under stress, but he said “There’s no room for ‘me first.'” He reiterated that all on-street parking (e.g. hardship, etc.) is suspended and that cars in violation will be tagged and towed.
Patience is the key word of the day. Here again are links to resources. The various department Facebook pages are good sources for updates.
- Milton forecast from National Weather Service
- Mass Emergency Management Agency
- Facebook links the Milton Police, the Milton Fire Dept, the DPW, and Town Hall.
- Town of Milton Emergency Guide
- MBTA.com
Frank, Thank you for keeping us informed. If it wasn’t for My Town Matters, I would not be aware of the Town Wide State of Emergency. To your knowledge, what efforts are being made by our town officials to notify our neighbors? I checked the Town website and links to Facebook and was unable to see any posts. Again, thank you.
Many thanks to Frank for getting the word out so quickly. We appreciate it, Frank!
A notice is posted on the Milton Police Department’s facebook page (please see link in the article). Also, the Police put out a reverse 911 call after the Board voted the emergency declaration late this afternoon. As more information becomes available during the next few days, updates will be available on the Town’s website and the Town’s and the Police Dept.’s facebook pages.
Thank you to all Milton residents for your continuing patience and cooperation as, together, we work our way through the snow clean-up effort and prepare for the next storm.
Thank you to all Public Works, Police, Fire, Consolidated Facilities and other Town employees and our Auxiliary Fire and Police volunteers for your tremendous efforts in exhausting, difficult and very unusual circumstances.
The best source for updates is Facebook – the Police in particular are very timely in posting updated information. The Fire and DPW sites are also good – you do not need a facebook account to view those pages as they are public (I think). Lastly, you can subscribe to email updates from town hall. There is a button for that on the town web site home page. Thanks for your ind words, interest, and I hope this helps.