North Adams Councilors Tour City Yard
 Paul Markland has headed up the Public Service Department since Leo Senecal retired last year. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The crew's gotten smaller, the trucks bigger and the space they have to work in hasn't changed in nearly 30 years.
But the city's Highway Department gets the job done. "It's tough, but we make do," Paul Markland, the city's public works director, told city councilors during a tour of the City Yard on Ashland Street on Thursday afternoon.
The tour was taken by members of the Public Services Committee, Chairman Keith Bona, Michael Boland and David Bond, and Councilors Marie Harpin and Lisa Blackmer. It was the first of planned tours of public facilities being undertaken by city councilors as a way to understand better how the city functions.
Markland led the councilors through storage and mechanical rooms in the main building that was constructed in 1884. The newest structure is a steel shell constructed in the 1970s to store the fleet of sanders and plows that's difficult to keep heated.
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Once numbering 70, the staff is now down to 28 and includes departments such as cemetery and parks that were once separate. Public works keeps a fleet of 40 vehicles, from dump trucks to backhoes, and maintains the fuel depot of diesel and gasoline for the city's entire fleet, with exception of the fire trucks.
But as the size of the trucks has increased, the space to service them has not. One mechanic, Michael Toniatti, maintains the public works fleet but the height and depth of the old garage makes it difficult to accommodate large trucks.
"He's restricted in what he can do," said Markland, showing how even the smaller trucks couldn't be lifted high enough to work under comfortably. "It's a very old place."
He estimated that it cost the city $2,000 to $3,000 an inch per storm. The crews plow 144 miles of road, and double that in mileage if you count plowing both sides. The overtime budget is $120,000 but Markland didn't think that much would be needed this year because there haven't been many storms.
The cost of plowing and sanding is increasing, said Markland. Sand is $17 a ton and the cost of salt has nearly doubled to $69.45 a ton this year. Most of the trucks, however, are fairly new and he's switched to stainless-steel sanders that cost more but are guaranteed to last a lifetime.
The yard also houses the Water Department and maps of improvements done over the years dating back decades. The department repairs and maintains pipes more than a century old. There's gate on the Massachusetts Avenue main that dates to 1888, said Markland. During the summer, crews maintain the flood control chutes within the city's borders.
It also makes most of the city's street signs with a plate press and its rooms are filled with tires, equipment and replacement parts. "We try to do everything here," said Markland.
Given a wish list, Markland said he'd like to begin switching the fleet to diesel to save money and motors over time, replace the two oldest 15-year-old vehicles — and get some new buildings.
But, as he repeated several times, "we make do."
Plow trucks are lined up tight in the City Yard's garage on Ashland Street.
Tags: city yard, DPW,
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