By Adam Swift
Several city councillors had praise for the public works department and other volunteers following the major snowstorm that hit the region on Sunday, Jan. 25.
At last week’s meeting, Councillor-at-Large Joanne McKenna thanked volunteers from local nonprofit Roca for their snow shoveling efforts.
“I would like to thank Roca for shoveling the public stairs at Bradstreet, Winthrop Ave. and Previte Way,” said McKenna. “Previte Way used to be Unity Ave., and multiple people use those public stairs to come down and use the T station.”
McKenna also thanked the DPW and the new plow drivers who were on duty for the storm.
“They filled up every blue bucket that holds the rocksalt several times before the storm when all the stores ran out,” she said. “They got slammed on Facebook for not doing a good job, but with the amount of snow we got and haven’t had over the last several years, they did a good job keeping up with it. I want people to realize that we have new plow drivers and they have to work at it to get it; we don’t have the Mercurio brothers anymore, we lost them, the veterans of the plowists so be patient, people.”
McKenna also thanked Mayor Patrick Keefe for his responsiveness during the storm.
“I called him with a number of problems, I called him directly and he resolved it, so I just want to say thank you,” said McKenna.
Ward 5 Councillor Angela Guarino-Sawaya said she also wanted to recognize the DPW workers.
“Some of them worked 36 to 48 hours straight, and people need to understand that they are doing the best that they can,” said Guarino-Sawaya. “There was a ton of snow, and sometimes they have to come out more than once to get what you want done. I called upon them at least 20 to 25 times every single day this week, and they did everything I have asked; it might have taken a little bit of time, but they did do a great job.”
Guarino-Sawaya also noted that many of the DPW employees work on a salary and don’t earn overtime pay.
“They don’t get paid for overtime, and they worked tons and tons and tons of overtime to help the residents,” she said.
