Lanesborough Administrator Gives Update on Snow Plowing
LANESBOROUGH, Mass.— Five staff members plow about 50 miles of town roads during the winter.
On Monday, Town Administrator Gina Dario updated the Select Board on snow plowing. The county began to see snow around Thanksgiving and had a significant storm last week.
"I just think it's good for transparency for people to understand sort of some of the process of how they approach plowing of roads," she said.
Fifty miles of roadway is covered by five staff members, often starting at 8 p.m. with staggered shifts until the morning.
"They always start on the main roads, including Route 7, Route 8, the Connector Road, Bull Hill Road, Balance Rock (Road,) and Narragansett (Avenue.) There is cascading, kind of— as you imagine, the arms of the town that go out there isn't a set routine. Sometimes it depends on which person is starting on which shift and where they're going to cover first," Dario explained.
"There are some ensuring that the school is appropriately covered and obviously they do Town Hall and they give Town Hall notice to make sure that we're clear to the public so that we can avoid people slipping and falling."
She added that dirt roads are harder to plow earlier in the season before they freeze 'Or sometimes they can't plow at all because that will damage the mud that is on the dirt roads at that point."
During a light snowstorm, plowers will try to get blacktop roads salted first so they can be maintained quickly.
"So that's just something we're going to put on the website, just to give people a little bit more visibility of how that works," Dario said.
"Obviously, if there are certain roads that aren't being tackled on a repeated basis, or depending on the time that people are leaving, they can reach out to the DPW director or myself and we will try to see what we can do."
She pointed to Pittsfield's struggles in hiring contractors for snow removal. Lanesborough uses in-house labor.
"We do not contract outside our DPW employees to plow snow," Dario reported.
"And even if we could with an expense, there is a lack of availability of people that have their trucks available to use for that service. They do a really good job and they've worked to the best of their abilities."
The Berkshires were issued a winter storm advisory last week and the area saw up to 11 inches of snow.
"I hate to say it, I've lived here since 1992, been in the Berkshires all my life. Welcome to the Berkshires," Selectman Timothy Sorrell said.
"Some of the people seem to think because the black taps not showing they are not doing their job but unfortunately, it's tough to keep up with and they're doing the best they can."
There have reportedly been many challenges with people not abiding by the winter parking ban, which impedes plowing and is dangerous, and she implored people to follow them.
Between Nov. 1 and March 31 each year, there is an overnight parking ban for vehicles on town roads between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. All illegally parked vehicles will be towed away at the owner's expense with a $300 fine, according to the bylaw.
In other news, the board approved an indemnity agreement with Eversource so that Hometown Heroes banners can be located on electricity poles beginning next year. The program pays tribute to past and present members of the Armed Forces and their family members.
The banners will be on North and South Main Streets. An application can be found on the town's website.
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