As DPW crews dealt with more than six inches of fresh snow and hail coming down on Thursday night, the Mason crew got a special ‘thank you’ in the form of homemade clam chowder.
As the Mason crews were out and about with loaded sand and salt trucks, Rosanna Dube of Mason visited the garage, said Road Agent Dave Morrison, bringing the crew some soup to warm them up as they treated and plowed the roads.
“A special thanks to her,” said Morrison.
The soup was appreciated as crews dealt with the incoming storm, which while it didn’t reach the top predictions, still dumped several inches on the region – and in some spots made for slick roads that caused trouble even for the crews that were supposed to treat them, said Morrison.
“It was amazing how slippery it was,” he said.
One of Morrison’s crew got stuck as one of the department’s bigger trucks was trying to dump the snow out of his plow and got dragged into a soft piece of snow. The department’s loader was able to pull the truck from the bank and send it on its way, but had to call it back to put down sand when the loader was then unable to make it up the hill, said Morrison.
“They were talking about a lot more snow than we got, but it was treacherous, and traveling was pretty bad,” said Morrison of keeping Mason’s roads – about half of which are dirt – clear.
Jaffrey DPW Director Randy Heglin said his staff was prepared for much more than the four to five inches of snow the town received on Thursday.
“The equipment was all ready to go,” said Heglin. “[Weather like this] is nothing new to Jaffrey.”
Heglin said his crew salted the roads around midday until about 3 p.m. and then went out around 7 p.m. to plow the roads.
Heglin said the department is always prepared to handle inclement weather from a materials and equipment perspective – the crew had to fix a sander prior to the storm – but still watches weather reports to keep track of the current weather trends.
Jaffrey’s experience was echoed by Greenfield’s crews.
“We were prepared for significantly more snow than we actually received,” said DPW Manager Neal Beauregard. “We received a lot of conflicting weather reports, but none of them were right.”
On Friday afternoon Beauregard estimated the town of Greenfield received about five to six inches, while other areas in town received closer to seven inches. He said the department spent chunks of the day on Wednesday preparing all of the trucks for the storm and making sure it had enough salt stockpiled to pretreat the roads before snow started to fly.
The department has three full-time employees and one part-time employee that clear the roads when a storm strikes. The town’s buildings and maintenance employee also plows out town parking lots. During the storm, all hands were on deck, Beauregard said.
He said plow trucks took to the roads Thursday at 10 a.m. and didn’t end until 2 a.m. Friday morning. Plows were back out on the roads at 8 a.m. on Friday morning clearing the roads for travelers. By Friday afternoon, he said, the department only had to clean up any slush that remained on the roads and clear the a portion of the town’s sidewalks.
“It all went pretty smoothly,” Beauregard said, although snow continued to drift down throughout Friday afternoon.
As accidents go, Mason had one on Thursday and New Ipswich had one on Friday.
In Mason, Michael Jusino, 36, of New Ipswich, and his 2003 Oldsmobile Bravada left the road while driving neat the intersection of Old Turnpike Road and Bell Lane. He drifted into a waterbed off the roadway and police needed a rotator wrecker in order to pull the vehicle from the water.
That single-vehicle accident occurred at 4:15 p.m. Only half an hour later two cars were involved in an accident listed at the same intersection, but handled it without a police response.
On Friday morning, Dec. 30, in New Ipswich, witnesses saw a two-vehicle accident involving a large tractor trailer truck on Route 124 before 10:35 a.m.
The road was closed for about two hours but New Ipswich police could not be reached for details.