Update from the Milton Police Dept.
Good evening.
Snow and extreme cold continue to impact our community. While significant snow cover still affects walking and driving, efforts continue to monitor and ensure safety.
Police-officers have been assigned to many schools to assist crossing guards with school starts/dismissals.
Calls for service can effect this, as 911 calls are heavy this month. Some schools are doing very well and others such as Glover require (3) patrol cars to facilitate school operation. Car pooling can help.
Do not think we are not paying attention to this situation. One only has to listen to our police radio frequency for a short period to see how much effort takes place each day. This remains a priority.
Snow removal operations.
All mutual aid and NG units are being relieved from MA, placing greater emphasis on local assets. Today, the Town Administrator held a comprehensive strategy meeting with every department that can assist the DPW in removing snow from our streets. One major hurdle in Milton is where to dump snow. We do not have a harbor and minimal large open areas to dump snow. Environmental restrictions are tough and Kelly Field lot is almost full. Tomorrow, commencing at 0700 hrs a major 24/7 local snow removal operation will begin. This will involve crews working 12hr shifts. We understand this is frustrating and taking a long time but hope this major push with a Planning Section identifying daily goals and objectives will help accomplish this mission. Thank you for your patience. Continue to watch out for each other’s welfare and thank you for your emails and calls.
While I applaud the general snow removal to major roads, some evaluation for the future needs to be done to not repeat the potentially dangerous situations for many side streets…my observation is that curb-to-curb plowing was not done from the first major storm. While it may be difficult to clearly visualize exactly where the curbs are during the snowstorm, it is clear that the plowing on side streets in my neighborhood did not even approach the curbs as the streets were left with a width available for only one lane of traffic. (There were no cars parked on the street to impede the plows) At some point, future plowing did not occur so that the middle of the streets have a midline of ice. And with the past 2 days of “flurries” and no plowing, the icy midline is covered in more snow that has frozen and is hidden from view making skidding more likely. More disconcerting are the limits on visibility at intersections which make turning safely very tricky. I don’t know what the solution is but I do think that more plowing needed to have been done sooner.
I’d have to agree with Judy. I drive into Boston, through the south end to work everyday. The local roads in Milton don’t look any better then the roads in the south end and there are still cars buried in the snow banks there. The ball was clearly dropped after the first storm. The lesson should be learned by our DPW folks to follow up on the streets after each storm to make sure that plows actually plowing the snow from curb to curb. The excuse that when plowing the snow just would fall back into the street is laughable. The plow driver on my street (Thistle Ave.) plowed one lane and just one lane during the first storm. After that any chance of widening the street was lost with each subsequent storm.