Good evening, everybody.

Welcome to the sustainability and infrastructure committee meeting uh for March 18th.

I'm the chair, Counselor Jesse Klingon.

And before we get started, I'm just going to read this blurb that allows us to do this meeting remotely.

Pursuant to chapter two of the acts of 2025.

This meeting of a city council committee will be conducted via remote participation.

We will post an audio recording, audio video recording, transcript, or other comprehensive record of these proceedings as soon as possible after the meeting on the City Assemble website and local cable access government channels.

With that little piece of uh work out of the way, why don't we go ahead and call um uh do a roll call to establish a quorum?

Uh clerk vote here.

Roll call to establish quorum.

Counselor Scott.

Counselor Hart.

Here.

Chair Klingon.

Present.

With two present and one absent, you have a quorum.

Okay.

So Counselor Scott has uh a conflict.

He will be arriving at some point, but he has um another meeting that he had to attend, award-related meeting.

Um that said, I just so let's first get this housekeeping out of the way.

Item number one, which is the approval of the minutes from the February 9th uh SI meeting.

Uh if you could call a roll on that.

Absolutely.

Counselor Scott.

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Chair Klingon.

Yes.

With two, yes, and one absent, these minutes are accepted.

All right, great.

So, and then some more housekeeping.

So I'm gonna jump right to item number five, which is was a public communication sent by uh Christopher Baland submitting comments.

Um I haven't spoken to him, and quite frankly, I wasn't uh totally sure as far as what the disposition of those were.

So I'm just gonna keep that one in committee.

I did talk to Jackie Duffy.

She had missed that meeting.

So we really I need to do a little more legwork as to is to figure out um what exactly is going on.

There is an email communication from the from the resident, Chris Beland, and it's related to um no power at a particular poll uh near 35 Holland Street that's been out of service since January 14th.

So I'm not I'm not not gonna take any action on this.

Again, I can't, I don't know.

Can if anybody can recall, meaning uh my colleague, Counselor Hart or uh Clerk Potier.

Um these many items listed here, um, grant of locations.

Did we approve those, but just still sent this here for follow-up, or were we holding those?

I mean, it wouldn't seem it would seem like we would we would want to hold off on those if there was some issue, but we may have that was a kind of a hectic meet.

We were all gonna I remember um there was a lot going on and and uh yeah I was okay.

Do you remember?

Counselor Hart.

Yes.

Um I we did not um hold all of those items uh like in that licenses and permits committee.

Um but I believe that there was going to be action, you know.

Miss Duffy had said that they would take action on uh the street the providing power to that street light.

Uh no, I have not received confirmation.

I did reach out to Mr.

Viland.

He lives in Ward 7, and um I have not received confirmation that it has been addressed.

So I was no, thank you for that.

Thank you for that reminder.

Like I said, it would I was there's a lot going on, and I didn't quite remember the disposition.

So on that, what I'll say is that I literally just called Jackie Duffy.

I got I was able to get her number right before the meeting and call her, um, who she wasn't able to attend that night.

She I'm gonna speak to her first thing tomorrow morning and figure out and go over the email.

I'm gonna forward the email to her and and make sure that um this has been settled.

So we will just leave this in committee for now.

We'll bring it up next time once it's resolved, but I will uh take care of this uh with her uh henceforth.

So clerk, Mr.

Clerk, we will um keep this one in committee.

Understood.

And then and then the other one, which is item number seven, order 26-0353 by Councilor Hart that the Commissioner Public Works discuss the council with the council.

The frequency of street sweeping throughout the period of April through November.

Um, I actually accidentally put that on the agenda.

The administration is not quite ready to speak to that.

They don't have a response, a robust response um prepared.

There was, you know, they've been working really hard on all of these snow items.

So we'll just take it up at the next meeting.

So yeah, that's that okay with you, Councilor Hart.

Like I said, they I had just kind of I grabbed them all and then I would heard from the administration that um they weren't quite ready to respond to that one yet.

No problem.

Sounds good.

Okay.

So item number seven, we will keep in committee.

Uh Mr.

Clerk.

Under bring this show time.

It's uh it's snow time, show time.

So just to set the table, we have um one, two, three.

We have about six items related to snow removal, as you know, as you all know, folks at home and elsewhere.

Um we were hit with a storm in January, then one just a few weeks or a month later.

Um, just really kind of uh two feet of snow in that second storm.

Uh DPW worked their tails off to get the roads clear.

Obviously, there's still a lot to be desired in terms of extras, such as bus stops, um ADA accessible ramps.

And this is something that I've been kind of working on around, you know, the the abutter issue, which is technically the abutters are supposed to handle the snow on the ramps, if you have butter ramp.

Uh so there's so there's many different issues here, and I'm gonna read them.

I'm gonna we're gonna take them all up together and then I'm gonna read them in an abbreviated way just because you know this is all online, maybe the clerk can't, yeah, he has it pulled up on the screen.

So I'm gonna read it sort of in an abbreviated way just so that we're not reading six items in a row here, taking up time.

Um then we're gonna have a presentation by the DPW that will basically by the commissioner, uh Eric Weissman that will kind of lay out like go over some of these, and then we can do questions on them.

So we'll take them up all together.

So that will be just for the record, that'll be item number items number two, three, four, six, eight, and nine.

And uh item number two is uh regarding removing snow from dead end streets, private ways and alleyways in a timely manner.

Item number three is regarding sidewalk snow clearing pilot, uh the school school street pilot, um, and whether or not that's worked as intended this year, or whether or not there are other strategies to improve pedestrian mobility following a large snowstorm.

Um item number four is regarding just lessons learned from this really huge recent storm about resources and policies needed to improve snow clearing, including MBTA bus stops, business district sidewalks and parking, private ways and dead ends.

That's come up again, and accessible ramps and bike lanes.

Um item number six is regarding policy of prohibiting parking on alternate uh alternating sides of the street during a snowstorm and whether it's the best way to meet snow removal.

That was by counselor Hart.

Um and then item number eight, which is um regarding how we do we ensure that handicapped parking spaces are not used for snow storage, uh and or dumpsters, but that's an ISD matter.

Um storage and are cleared at the same time as other spaces.

And then finally, item number nine, which is regarding how we can ensure that accessible sidewalk ramps are cleared following snowstorms and ensure that 311 reports on the issue are promptly responded to.

So when someone puts a ticket in about a uh a curb cut ADA ramp, um, you know, making sure that they're they're addressed in a timely manner.

Um so yeah, so all of those being on the table, um, I'll will now turn it over to the commissioner BPW who has provided a provided a presentation.

So it's kind of it's kind of a a um uh what's the word I'm looking for, like uh uh after report of the storm in a way, and uh speaks to some of these issues.

So let's get into it.

Um with that uh commissioner Weissman.

The floor is yours.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh Eric Weissam Commissioner of DPW.

Sorry, but before I turn over to you.

Um, are you able to let the commissioner share your screen or whoever needs to put it?

It looks like I have permissions to do that.

So if you don't mind, I'll go ahead.

Yeah, if you could just put the slides up so that the folks at home can kind of follow along.

It looks like it's disabled.

Can somebody enable me?

Let me take a look.

It's all green and tempting me to click, but it doesn't work.

Right now, okay.

Okay.

Um to try to full screen this.

Can you guys see wrong view?

Uh hold on a second.

Yep, take your time.

If I switch screens, can you just did this a moment ago?

I'll cut this to work.

It's a thumb.

There's one that's like switch, which which um yeah.

Chair through you, it might be the display settings at the top.

Yes, that's it.

Swap presenter view and slide view.

How's that?

Perfect.

Thanks, guys.

Thank you, Yasmin.

All right.

Um thank you, uh Chair and Counselors for having me.

Uh I'm going to make a presentation on uh the year's snow operations so far.

The agenda is we'll just start with the snow operations 101.

We'll do a January storm post mortem.

Um, and then dig into dead ends and private ways, mobility infrastructure, and the enhanced enforcement area, also known as the snow pilot.

Okay.

So uh this is just going over a typical big storm timeline.

So we are sorry, sorry to interrupt yet again, but um I think if I I kind of like since it's you know it's just a few of us here, I kind of like doing questions during it during the.

You want to jump in?

Um, so I'm gonna just I'll just defer to the raised hand thing.

So I'll let you actually well we'll just just stop and then I'll I'll call on if Connor has a question.

All right, we'll just kind of play.

We'll play like that.

You let me know if a counselor has a question.

Um I'm gonna be in the zone.

So yeah, yeah.

If I don't call on you, I apologize.

I'll try to be looking out.

Okay.

So uh 70, like throughout the winter, we're we're reviewing forecasts.

Um, and about 72 hours prior to storm is when forecasts really start to solidify.

And then um the other nice thing about 72 hours prior to a storm is that's when we can start uh liquid deic or pretreatment, otherwise known as brine.

Uh assuming that the conditions are right.

So that means sufficiently cold weather, no rain, storm starting with snow, not rain or ice.

We have a flow, a whole flow chart to determine whether we can start with uh with liquid deicer, and the advantage of that is that unlike road salt, it doesn't bounce around, get crutched up, moved off the roads, pushed to the sides.

Um with regular or treated road salt, we'll be doing that treatment closer to the storm either the day before or the day up, depending on the conditions and the timing of the storm.

Uh once the storm is underway, we bring in staff and contractors to repeatedly plow routes, um, prioritizing safe passage of emergency vehicles uh and the schools.

And then in most in smaller storms, we're doing um separated bike facilities uh at the same time, and then removal operations happen later.

Uh, and then we're depending on the storm, we may be uh reapplying de-icer or road salt throughout the storm.

Then uh in a larger storm, 12 to 24 hours after the storm, uh snow removal operations begin, starting with schools, and we'll get into the operational hierarchy of removal in a further slide.

And then in following days, we are responding to 311 requests, conducting further snow removal, um, responding to requests about things like space savers.

Uh okay, so who does what?

This is a common question we get about snow.

Uh the city is responsible for uh city streets, sidewalks, and adjacent ramps around city property, around and uh it within the property of schools, squares and islands, uh city and school lots, bridges, and when we say bridges, we mean the sidewalks and bridges, bus stops and adjacent ramps, and parks and playgrounds and thus the or the sidewalks around parks and playgrounds.

Uh the state is responsible for removing snow from state roads, which for us is Route 28 and Route 16, so McGrath Highway and uh Ilwife Brook Parkway.

The state is also responsible for the McGrath pedestrian bridge and sidewalk adjacent to that, except where the sidewalk is adjacent to the uh the Kremlin's playground.

And then also uh MBTA uh train stations.

Uh counselor Clangan.

Chair.

Well yeah, thank you.

Well, well, one thing I noticed, and this was sort of like a big kind of uh with the word like sort of like a big um change was the community path.

This is the biggest storm we've had since we had the community path.

And I noticed that I don't see the community path on there.

Um, I guess is that just adjacent ramp uh sidewalks and adjacent ramp.

Yeah, I guess we actually treat the community path as as a city street.

We run due to the size of it and the type of equipment we can run on it.

Uh we run that throughout the storm.

I get like a little later into uh bike infrastructure um and like uh mobility infrastructure, but the we've all or since we've taken over the community path, we've always maintained it for snow.

Uh we claimed when we first got it that we might have to close the path if it was over four inches.

And because we didn't know, uh, particularly we were concerned about the tightness around the viaduct.

Yeah, I mean, that makes sense from you all's point of view of like kind of treating it as something that you already had, like part as part of your already thing.

So could considering it like a street based on its width, considering a street, uh it makes sense.

I just want the public to know because that was sort of a big piece of contention, you know, is yeah.

So I I would say to the public that the more uh cyclists and pedestrians using the community path, the fewer cyclists and pedestrians that are on the roads.

So um it gets a tremendous amount of usage.

It's about as close as we could get to a uh a bicycle and um pedestrian highway within the city.

So that is why we prioritized it.

Um we'll talk about the prior prioritizing about of the separated bike facilities later on in the presentation, but uh yeah, it's just it's like a single truck that runs back and forth um down the community path.

And we were able to keep it open uh for all except the last big storm, the February storm.

Um, and I think that was due to the sort of heavy wet nature of the snow, but yeah.

Makes sense.

Sure.

Yeah, just wanted to just wanted to do that.

Yeah, yeah, but that is a city responsibility.

Um that's part of our agreement with the state when we accepted the the community path.

And then so, and then finally, property owners are responsible for sidewalks and curb ramps adjacent to their property, including um ADA ramps and their own driveways.

Okay, so um, this is sort of breaking down what's going on during a major storm.

So uh if it's a snow emergency, uh our operational team is overseeing towing operations conjugate conducted in conjunction with police and parking departments and coordination with communications, public safety, constituent services, and emergency management.

Uh highways and infrastructure are taken care of uh through the plowing and de-icing of city streets and separated bicycle facilities.

So when we're talking about separated bicycle facilities, we're talking about um the flex post or otherwise separated bicycle facilities on the road.

And then uh the facilities team is clearing of snow from um from schools, city buildings, sidewalks adjacent to city property and parking lots.

Uh, and that includes the community path.

Okay.

And then I wanted to draw attention to to how we how we conceptualize these storms.

We have uh service levels, and that is mostly uh based on forecasted accumulation, although there are other considerations like subsequent temperature, um ice, uh existing snow on the ground.

Uh, like we might handle a two-inch, or sorry, we might handle a four-inch storm after a 24-inch storm differently than we handle a four-inch storm in isolation.

Okay, so um where we're salting and or brining weather permitting in most storms throughout the storm.

Uh similarly, we staff up and bring in contractors depending on uh the amount of snow.

So uh the degree to which we plow on a zero to two inch storm would be different than a two to four inch storm.

Okay.

Uh ditto pretreatment to what degree we plow separated bike facilities.

One of the big changes after that first storm, and this is the first storm that we've this is the first year with significant enough storms where we've had this scale of separated bike facilities.

We really found that um it was counterproductive to run bicycle equipment at the same time that we were running uh road plows and at some time small equipment on like the bridges.

If you were to imagine uh a bridge that has a 10-wheel truck pushing snow uh in one side and um uh like a small tractor clearing a sidewalk, the the bike facilities were sort of stuck in the middle.

So we're gonna talk about that a little further later, but we we're switching in a larger storm to a removal operation um on those separated bike facilities because it was it just felt like it wasn't effective to be running them throughout the route, but up to about eight inches, it is really effective and it gets people onto those facilities and getting to work the next day, which is really our priority, safely getting to work the next day.

And then the degree to which we bring in contractors will depend on the amount of snow and how we deploy them within routes, whether we're tandeming them or whether we are splitting routes up.

And then finally, we the more snow there is, the more removal operations there are.

Um so in a small storm, we may do no snow removal in a medium-sized storm, we'll do some snow removal.

Maybe we'll just be pushing piles uh for the schools, but maybe we'll be scooping up piles and storing the snow.

Uh bigger storms, snow removal becomes very likely in order to get uh school open, and then uh the removal sort of expands from there.

Um counselor Hart.

Thanks so much.

I just wanted to ask a quick clarification.

I'm not familiar with the term back dragging.

Oh, sure.

Yeah.

Okay, so that that means that the like for a small storm, we might have the plow uh rather than push the snow, uh like drive up and drag the snow backwards to pull the snow off of the bus route to make it clear for a bus to come.

That's really done in a small storm uh or medium-sized storm where we want to make sure that people have uh, you know, we wouldn't do a full-scale operation, but we might clear the snow away from where um riders would be got it uh boarding and keyboarding.

Okay.

So all right, so when do you need to call in contractors?

I don't mean what situations, because I could see it there on the last slide.

If you go back, but like I just so you must have like sort of three sets of plans because like you know, each plow has a route.

And so like to be able to do the whole city, even with a with with like a two-inch storm, yeah.

Contractors aren't even used.

I mean, that's still quite a bit of labor for yes.

So we have like I actually should know this off the top of my head.

I think we have like 27 routes total when to consider the crosstowns, the maze, the neighborhood routes.

Um those you sort of like we're gonna look at the forecast, we're gonna see our staffing level, who's available to work.

It's often just as the nature of these things happening over time.

So we go through for the CBA calling our staff in, our staff gets called in before we call any contractors in.

Then in a small storm, we might have to supplement with contractors, uh, depending on staff availability.

Um, but we might also say, like, okay, we have 11 people, we're gonna double up the routes.

So um, you know, it's only gonna fall two inches over 24 hours.

We're just gonna cover this whole storm with a smaller crew, uh, or we're just salt in, you know.

Um, and then like once it gets bigger, we determine like, okay, do we need two trucks on all these routes?

Do we need to have um do we need to fill in where there are gaps?

Uh so that so at that point, that's when we would sort of um adjust the contractor plan.

I just want to acknowledge Counselor Scott and Couple Scott.

And obviously, bigger picture questions are wait until the end, but feel free to throw your hand up while he's presenting if if it's like you know, a very sort of specific question.

So we're just kind of doing it free-flow style, uh, free style like that.

But um, so welcome.

Thank you.

Okay.

So this is a simple separation of uh snow removal areas post-storm by priority.

So uh schools and city facilities are our highest priority.

Um, and that involves clearing and removing from parking lots, drop-offs, and adjacent crosswalks.

So if we even within that category, schools are our highest priority.

Uh given the calendar, right?

So assuming that it's a day where there's school the next day, it's not a vacation period.

Uh, there isn't like significant programming.

We might uh de-emphasize school removal, but in most cases, schools are our number one priority.

We want to get schools open as quickly as possible.

Uh, our next bucket is mobility infrastructure.

Um, that is clearing all MBTA bus stops and adjacent ramps, um, and then clearing uh bike and pedestrian facilities as necessary.

Um as I said earlier, under most circumstances, we're keeping the community path open throughout the storm.

Um, I think there was there was one storm where uh we lost it midway through the storm and then came back and cleared it the next day uh in a really catastrophic storm that might turn into a removal operation, but it hasn't yet.

We've been able to like clear a wide enough lane.

Um, but it's extremely narrow, and there's limits to how much weight can be on the um on the viaduct.

So that's like something we've sort of kept in our back pocket and had and um haven't had to use it.

In bigger storms, we're going to be clearing um snow from the separated bicycle facilities, uh, like we did in the last storm.

But uh in medium and small storms, we're going to be keeping those clear throughout the storm as well.

Uh and then uh our next priority is um usually reserved for after a snow emergency is lifted, uh, involves removing snow from streets and corners to maintain public safety and city operations and clearing public squares.

So we are in communication with the school department, with um police and fire to make sure that as cars move from uh the parking side to the non-parking side after an emergency, that there's still clearance.

So, like uh if there's a street that's narrow, uh that public safety equipment can't get down, or it's not safe, like it's making drop-offs unsafe.

Uh, we'll go in and do some clearance there.

And then finally clearing public squares.

Uh that that is something that's happen happens in like the largest storms usually to just um you know make those sort of heavily trafficked areas clearer.

Okay.

All right.

So then I wanted to get into the uh post-mortem, and I just wanted to uh quickly give a shout out to our team.

So I'm extremely proud of the work our DPW staff and contractors have done so far this winter, especially amid historic snow totals.

We are not perfect, and we believe that there is always room for improvement.

We welcome feedback, and we love to look for new ways to refine our operations and to better serve our constituents, and that's why we're here.

Okay.

So I want to provide some context for uh for this season.

Um we had, and these are Somerville numbers, uh not Boston numbers.

So uh we had 68 inches of snow through through today.

I checked the numbers again, and those numbers are still good.

Uh 68 inches of snow to date, uh, the highest snowfall total since the winter of 2015.

Um the January storm, we had 23 and a half inches, and um in the February storm, we had 16, almost 17 inches.

And um it's unusual to say that you feel lucky that you only got 17 inches, but when you look at some of our neighbors to the south, I think we did okay in that storm.

So uh biggest storm or biggest season in a long time, uh biggest storm in a long time.

Um so I wanted to break it down by what I thought was successful.

I thought the staff uh the highway uh buildings, grounds, um other people that pitch in with plowing and shoveling, did a great job with the first major storm since 2022.

Uh and it produced uh one of the top 10 snowfall totals in Boston history, and that we were uh able to keep not only road access, but the community path open in spite of nearly two feet of snow.

Uh so and then here are the big rooms for improvement.

Uh the private ways and dead end snow response fell well below our standards, uh particularly during the storm.

Uh and separated bike facilities were completely snowed in at the end of the at the end of the storm, despite running small equipment throughout the storm.

So uh that's an extra stinger that was tough.

Um, and then many uh routes didn't have snow plowed as close to the curb as we would have liked where possible.

Uh Councillor Hart, why the screen is yellow, but thank you.

Um, and uh through you, Chair to um Commissioner Wiseman.

I just wanted to ask a quick question on that last slide.

If you could say more about the um, because I can imagine that it's really difficult if you have a plow going through and then it's plowing in the direction of the bike lane.

You know, how is that supposed to work?

And then how did it end up happening?

I'd just love to hear more thought.

Yeah, what you'll see in most cases is that there's there's like a windrow that gets developed, they they almost like create a uh a pile like this, a narrow, tall pile that sort of uh goes along the flex posts, and there's usually enough travel for like space for um for motor vehicles to be in their lane and cyclists to be in their um lane as well, their separated lane as well.

Uh I think we just came up to the volume in this case.

Um there was just too much snow being pushed into the uh into the bike facilities.

Um, you know, we're we're driving around constantly in these storms, and we we saw one really uh troublesome situation where like uh a plow had gone through, and then the equipment on the separated bike facilities was pushing snow back into the road, and we actually had to help a motorist who was getting stuck in just the snow that was getting pushed from the bike facility into the road.

Like that is not how it's supposed to be working.

The way it's supposed to be working is that there's like a little bit that's going to go onto the verge of the sidewalk, a little bit that's going to go in the flex post zone, uh, and then enough clear travel for both.

Does that answer your question?

Yes, thank you.

Um, so this was supposed to say like number three dead ends and private ways.

I don't know what happened, but um, so I wanted to break down the the dead ends in private ways.

Uh so city-owned dead ends make up about 2% of our roadway mileage.

Uh in general, they're narrower, um, but they are parked subject to parking restrictions and like uh snow emergencies.

Um but the the challenge with dead ends is there's nowhere to push snow.

If you're pushing a linear road, uh you kind of just keep pushing along and it gets dragged to the side of the road.

Uh with a dead end, that's not really possible.

Then moving on to private ways.

Uh, this is about 7% of our roadway mileage, and they may be narrow.

They're not subject to parking restrictions, but you can push snow through a route through in most cases.

Um, although there are some narrow ones that have special considerations.

A lot of these, like linear private ways are part of our uh regular snow routes.

And then private dead ends uh make up about 7% of our roadway mileage, and they uh may be very narrow and also not subject to parking restrictions.

So they have this sort of like dual challenge.

And then uh like city-owned dead ends, there's nowhere to push snow.

And I have a draft map here just to give you a sense of um all the different dead ends and private ways throughout the city.

Uh, this map isn't perfect.

It's missing um uh, I don't know if you are uh familiar with the area.

And this is like a little hard to read, I apologize.

But uh so here's DPW over here on Franny Road, and this neighborhood behind it has a bunch of uh streets that end in dead ends, like Henderson.

Um, so those aren't represented just because of the way the data is um is represented in the GIS, but we're working with IAM to sort of include these in account for them.

Um and then I I had this sort of flash here, unlike a linear plowing route, dead ends are spread across the city.

So when we talk about routes, um, it's easy to imagine a route in like the ward.

This area and this area, there's about um, I don't know, like 17 neighborhood routes throughout the city, and you can send a plow truck to it, and they can sort of noodle around the neighborhood and hit every street.

When you're dealing with private ways, they're spread across the city.

Uh, you're traveling from it's it's it's it's a less of a linear route and more of like a point-to-point route.

So that provides its own challenge.

Okay, so um, this is kind of like our thought process that through this.

So in the past, routes were cleared after the storm or by a contractor throughout and after a storm.

So at different times in the city's history, uh dead ends were handled in different ways.

Um so we hadn't had a big storm in a while, and we put three contractor uh plow trucks driving the city's dead ends.

And very quickly, uh, due to uh communication from residents, uh it became clear that this wasn't effective.

Um so we in the storm we dispatched staff that was um not on a route, like we had superintendents out, the director of operations and I went out, and we're just taking reports um and like going and trying to plow people out during the storms, but uh it wasn't enough.

There was no way we could we could catch up.

So we ended up um having to clear snow as a removal operation after the storm.

So uh we realized that this was not an adequate approach to these to these roads uh and uh not the service we would like to provide to residents.

So the new plan is for storms up to four inches, we will have staff remove snow from dead ends after the storm uh when they've finished their routes, and usually this would mean backing into a dead end and pushing out, right?

Um and then we identified a contractor with four small plow trucks and four small pieces of equipment that we could rotate uh through the dead ends throughout the storm with forecasts less than eight inches of accumulation.

And then when storm forecasts more than eight inches, the plan is to bring in additional small equipment that can navigate the tight streets.

And I'll give you a preview.

Uh that that small equipment is coming from the deprioritized separated bike facilities.

Um in the second storm in February, uh, we found this to be quite successful.

Um this wasn't in the uh the slides I sent, but I looked at the numbers and um there were like 266 service requests about dead ends alone in um the January storm, and I went down to 56 requests in the February storm.

And we there was there was a another storm, um, a smaller storm that we used this a similar method.

Um questions on the dead ends.

All right, so mobility infrastructure, we've we've talked about this already, but um different bike and pedestrian facilities are handled differently.

So the separated bike facilities have uh small equipment rotating through the routes.

Um we devise these routes every year uh as we meet our statutory obligations for safe treat streets and things like that.

Um we we get more separated bike facilities.

So each year we're kind of um rearranging the bike routes and sharing that with our staff and contractors and mobility and coming up with a plan.

And then uh the non-separated bike facilities and community path uh is mostly handled by trucks and other large equipment while plowing, plowing road routes, whether that means um a non-separated facility on uh a neighborhood street.

Um like my street willow have a bike lane that gets sort of cleared by the truck plowing the road or salting the road.

Um, and then the community path has um, as I mentioned before, a truck running back and forth on the path.

So here are uh the most recent bike separated bike facilities.

This is a map we developed with mobility.

I think we started with like three uh separated facility routes.

Um, and we're up to six plus the community path.

So if you see uh a small piece of equipment out, this is the routes that they're running for now uh until next year.

Um, and then just on to the community path, uh, due to the design of this path, it's very difficult to maintain um because it's narrow and there's not a lot of places to push snow.

So uh when we took over the path, we had a lot of anxiety about how were we going to keep this clear.

Um snow is handled jointly by DPW grounds and DPW highway with contractor support.

Um we were able to keep the uh path open throughout the January storm due to the light fluffy snow.

And uh I remember after that storm, I felt like, okay, well, if you know, if we could handle 23 and a half inches, there's nothing that will close this path.

But that was a lot lighter snow than the February storm, didn't have the blowing wind.

Um so we, you know, reality check in February.

We had to temporarily suspend operations.

Um, and then we I think you know, maybe there were eight inches left um by the time they were that they abandoned the path.

We just reassigned the truck to a different route.

And then we cleared the remaining snow at the following morning.

Okay, so um I've kind of tipped my hand on this, but um this is the approach that we've ch we've taken to mobility infrastructure.

So we found that like running the snow routes throughout the storm wasn't effective for the reasons I explained that they were fighting against the plows.

Uh, and it was not a good use of city resources to have the small equipment in there.

So uh the new approach was instead of running the routes with no benefit, we decided to run separated facilities as a post-storm operation and storms over eight inches.

And then the results in February, we were able to clear separated facilities in the days falling the storm.

Uh, this freed up the bike, and I put bike in quotes because it's just equipment, but it's not specialized to bikes, but the equipment we use in the bike facilities to work on other areas during the storm, including on private ways, dead ends and uh also helping with city and school school clearance.

Okay.

Any questions on mobility infrastructure?

Keep it moving.

And then the enhanced enforcement area, otherwise known as the sidewalk pilot, um, just to take you back in time.

We work with mobility to select two key corridors, which were Broadway and School Street.

Um, and that at the time they conducted a bunch of outreach at the start of the program.

And so the basically the process is ISD after a storm, uh, when it's uh residents are supposed to have their sidewalks cleared by I think six out six hours after daylight after the storm ends.

ISD conducts enforcement, issues citations.

Uh ISD sends a list of violations to us, and then we clear sidewalks of properties and violation.

Um we always do this in storms of four or more inches.

Typically, those are snow emergencies, but sometimes one sneaks up on us.

So uh we had two snow emergencies and one non-snow emergency uh this year.

So um uh nine tickets on January 20th, 14 tickets and uh properties cleared on the 27th, and 23 on the 24th.

And I think you could probably chalk the numbers up to the weight of the snow.

Um, okay, so uh there's been a lot of requests for potential improvements um to the process.

We so we currently only conduct the pilot where there are over four inches of snow.

Um, we could expand the number of events to include enforcement removal of Broadway in school, any event were more than an inch of snowfell.

So any anytime you're releasing accumulating snow, we could go out and do this pilot.

And then I think another way would be to expand enforcement.

Um we could max out all snow tickets at 300, which I think is the max amount.

Um, expand the enforcement area.

So, like add an additional street or streets.

Um, and then also expand enforcement capacity.

So uh currently enforcement is done.

Um how do I put this?

Uh the IS, I don't want to speak too much for ISD, but they have a number of priority areas that they enforce around schools, around elderly area, like elderly homes, um, and in the enforcement area, the pilot area.

And in the enforcement area, the pilot area.

And then beyond that, most enforcement is just done by three by or by like resident request or 311.

So like if there was like broader enforcement capacity in the department, perhaps they could do more proactive enforcement.

Counselor Hart.

Thank you through the chair to you.

Could you just clarify for me?

Is was it all of Broadway or just a certain section?

It's all of Broadway and all of School Street.

Thank you.

Okay.

So and then I just wanted to have some uh share some ideas we had um for improvement.

Uh we're always looking for additional snow storage.

Um we've been working with OSB C D and procurement to identify local or remote snow storage facilities.

We found a couple of options.

I actually thank you to counselor Scott for putting us on some uh things we did speak to people.

Um then um uh I think eventually we need to plan to transition to snow melting operations.

We have a small snow melter, it is working.

Uh it's not our um it can't be our whole solution, but it's gonna be part of the solution.

Um but I think eventually we need to look at having a snow melting facility, but more to come on that.

Um, and then uh we're going to improve access to handicapped parking spaces.

So this is something where historically uh it was just sort of 311 driven.

We're gonna uh contract a vendor to clear all ADA spaces that are covered in snow.

Um, so on the uh sort of the non-parking side, like snow gets pushed in.

So we're gonna try to do that proactively next year in larger storms or after snow snow emergencies.

And then um we want to improve plowing operations.

We're trying to staff up.

Uh we're trying to add additional vendors to support faster and more efficient snow removal operations, and we want to work on training staff and organizing routes so that we're able to plow closer to the curve where appropriate.

Um that that is my presentation.

Um, I will entertain any other questions.

And maybe share it.

Well, well, thank you for that uh that recap.

What did you call it?

Uh post-mortem.

Thank you for the postmortem.

Um, I have a couple of quick questions.

I'm sure we all have a lot of questions.

So as far as the pilot goes, though, and maybe my memory needs some refreshing, but so school street.

Um what's supposed to happen, I believe, is if somebody doesn't shovel will will do it, but they'll get a ticket.

That's right.

Like they'll get it.

Um, so how did how it's just school street though, right?

For the pilot.

It's school street and Broadway.

It's Broadway too.

Yes.

I didn't realize we expanded it to Broadway.

Okay.

So um, yeah.

So just to get back to Counselor, you and Campin, um did you have any breakdown on you know, just how many yeah, it was like um yeah, okay.

It's uh nine tickets in the first storm, 14 tickets in the second storm.

See, I got you, I got you.

And but that's just in the pilot.

That doesn't include other tickets that they issued.

Okay.

Um so otherwise this street was fairly fairly clear, it sounds like okay.

All right, so that kind of covers that one.

Um so with the first one, just with regards to the first item around dead ends, private ways and alleyways in a timely manner.

You know, I do understand that it's sort of like it's one of those things where technically the city doesn't have to clear the private ways.

Um, but we certainly do it, it behooves us to because you know, if everybody can't get on the same page, you have you maybe have people renting a place, maybe the owner, you know, but we don't want to have streets with snow if we need to get an emergency vehicle down there.

Yeah.

So but but I want to just bring up, and again, first of all, let me just say from the outset that logistically, the things that you all do, and just hearing like you know, kind of the anxiety you must get, even when you hear snow in the forecast.

I mean, it you know, it does not fall on me fall flat here, but I just do I do want to say I want to kind of ask some of the questions.

So this isn't like I'm not trying to give you a hard time.

Yeah, some of the questions that the folks had out there.

So one of the things, so what so just to get back, I know, and you explained it, but like just to ask the question as far as like it, and again, I don't know, people's memories are, you know, like you said, we hadn't really had any snow.

So it's uh people's memories are probably short too, where it's like they don't really remember.

But one thing people were pretty sure of is that like for instance, I'll give you one example Leicester Terrace, which is a dead end private weight, both private way dead end, which is usually cleared.

Um actually Harriet Randbig lives on that street.

She's on the commission, she's blind, and she's on a commission.

That street took a you know a really sort of I don't know the exact time frame, but it certainly took a lot longer.

Like I'm talking, yeah, maybe even I don't want to miss B misquoted, but I've thought at least like even the next day, like it was an extended, it felt like an extended period of time.

Yeah, absolutely.

It took a long example.

It took too long.

Okay.

So this, so this was something, and and the reason why you said um the reason why the dead ends and private ways were sort of they weren't deprioritized, but was there no so the best way I could explain it is that the plan we had was not sufficient for the private ways and dead ends.

And I, you know, I think I can only chalk it up to that.

We were uh delusionable, delusional about the ability of three trucks to handle that much snow.

It just was not enough.

It wasn't the right equipment.

Um I think we were much more uh successful with the subsequent storm.

We put more um more equipment and smaller equipment on those routes and had them rotate through smaller routes.

It was too much and not enough.

And I have more questions.

I'm not gonna hog, I'm gonna jump around.

I'm gonna go to Consul Scott in a second, but I do want to ask on that same topic.

You said there's 27 routes.

So how do you know off the top of yet how many streets per route is that roughly?

I I don't know.

Go by miles, like how many miles.

Yeah, so they are the these are like long established snow routes that um go back to hand-drawn maps.

Um not to not to give you that's the way it's always been done, because that's not the kind of answer I like to give, but we have established routes that um go back a long time and uh they're sort of divided throughout the city.

Uh I wish I'd included a um uh a map in this that showed the snow routes, but um no, that's all right.

I just really my question was is but those 20 the 27 routes and the way they're like that is all separate, those streets and those routes are all separate from the dead ends and the private ways and the private dead ends.

Right.

So historically, from what I understand, and um, I don't know how long ago this was.

You would finish your route, and if you had a smaller truck, then you would have a list of dead ends in your route that you would back into and push out.

And that's how they cleared the route, the the dead ends historically.

More recently, they had a contractor with a lot of like small equipment, sort of more similar to how we're doing it now, that would have um dead end routes that they that they they split their crews up throughout the city.

Um they would sort of do it uh during the storm and after the storm.

I have distinct memories of um 2022, uh seeing contractors um removing snow from the dead ends around like off Cross Street, like around the East Somerville community school.

So uh we're kind of moved back into a similar operation.

Yeah, well, I mean, naturally, if you're near a school, it probably you know, you benefit from being near a school in terms of if you have a den near a school, I would imagine though, because the school's like priority, they're probably getting cleared.

So they may have been some Yeah.

My concern was like the heavy equipment was still out at drop off or something, like yeah, it was a it was a chaotic scene.

That's all I sort of remembered.

But uh yeah.

Council Scott, floor is yours, and then we'll go to Council Hart.

If you're muted, still muted, counsel.

Sorry, uh I hit my lower hand, didn't hit my mute button.

Um I appreciate it, and uh I do have a list here, but I'll try to be mindful of time, keep an eye on uh how much of the clock I'm burning here.

Uh I really appreciate the presentation.

Uh I know we we talked during the storm uh a couple of times, Director Wiseman, and uh uh hopefully some of the that information in terms of additional snow storage was was helpful.

Yeah, I did uh before I get into the very specific uh concerns.

I I was confused, maybe, or uh uh a little bit concerned.

Um one of the later slides there had something about uh dedicated snow melting equipment.

Uh and I'll be honest with you, I've followed the conversation in Boston uh over snow melt equipment for a number of years.

Um you know, Boston's got enormously uh larger resources than we do in terms of our budgets.

Uh and even in that case, the uh use of dedicated snow melting equipment is one that is a budget buster over there, uh, you know, given that we do have uh a certain number of city owned lots uh and also uh let's say underutilized properties where folks would be willing to help us out either for minor rent uh or not versus the very high costs uh purchasing or renting snowmelt equipment.

Yeah.

Uh I'm I'm concerned, I guess I'd say when I see that listed as a future priority.

Um can you tell us a little bit more about what the thought process is?

Absolutely.

Because like we do we do get the sun for free eventually.

No, I agree.

Yeah, the the ultimate snow melter is the sun and it's free.

Uh I agree completely.

And you know, like the the irony of these things, uh talking about these things while while there's no snow on the ground isn't lost on me.

Um, and we do a lot of our snow uh preparation in sunny August.

Um our thinking about snow melters is that in a city as dense as Somerville, there's always going to be a higher priority use than piles of snow.

I I find it hard to believe that if the city were to all of a sudden in um uh get large pieces of land, they wouldn't try to make them open space.

And that that is the right thing to be doing with or developing them into housing or some other use for more residents.

I think the advantage of snow melting operations is it lets you process snow in a much smaller footprint.

So um, while there are vacant properties now, I I do have to start thinking about five and ten years down the line and where um operational space will be.

Uh, I could imagine a situation where we have a small plot of land where we're melting almost as quickly as it's being dropped off.

Uh, there aren't large piles of snow that linger into May.

And then those spaces could be used, you know, for some other operational need, like low lay down space for the water and sewer department or um, you know, storage of materials for another department.

So that's what I'm thinking of.

I I think it's like the specifics are a conversation for the future, but I just can't imagine that anybody's gonna donate a big chunk of land long term to store snow in in Somerville.

No, and I I appreciate that director.

I just have to say for myself, uh, between looking at 90 Washington Street and uh say the Nissenbaum lot and some of the other uh let's say long-term areas that have stayed fallow.

Uh I can certainly understand it.

Uh let's put it this way, I'd love it if we got to a point where every lot in the city was so heavily utilized that we were making a trade-off of uh, you know, Lord, there's uh uh five million dollar per year tax uh benefit to actually improving that property versus uh what it costs us to maintain it as a snow storage lot.

But I'll be honest with you, I don't think we're there yet.

Yeah, uh hundred percent.

And as long as there's space to put snow, I will put snow there.

Well, on the uh council scar, on this point real quick though, I think it is important to really kind of go back into more or less recent recent history, which was that for up until I I forget what yeah, they stopped doing it, but I mean, I know Boston and I think we were carting snow uh and basically putting it into the harbor, like putting it into the ocean uh is what they used to do.

And so since we stopped doing that, we have run into this storage issue when we do get big storms.

I don't know about the melting thing, like for you know, a huge strategic piece, but I could see it making sense in terms of targeting, like when you all go after into the squares.

Like if you like if you were to set up a melter near you know, Davis Square, and then you guys would just take in buckets, you know, to get rid of that snow.

Because you know, to truck it, well, I don't know.

I guess the numbers I've seen people say that to even to truck it, um it costs I don't have to cost less to truck it than it does to uh I think that's what you say.

But um, so I know the numbers would have to work out.

I'm not I'm not I'm not coming down one way or the other.

I hear what you're saying about space, but um, I also hear Council Scott's concerns.

I was sorry about that.

Hey, no problem, Mr.

Chair.

Um so I I guess that was a large uh but kind of a bigger picture question.

Um I I really appreciated the um ticketing data on slide 23.

I think that's really helpful.

One of the things that uh that actually I I obviously I get a lot of calls about this uh over the years, over the last decade, good lord.

Uh and um, you know, one of the things that actually helps folks is when I can tell them, hey, you know, we issued four tickets for the Beaumas Machine Shop because we know they don't shovel their sidewalk.

We know it's hazardous, we know it uh causes problems for folks that's directly on the route to Argenziano.

Um so having folks know that those tickets get issued is actually a big part of helping reassure people that the city is on the case and and caring for them at the very least.

Uh that said, I I also acknowledge that right now the maximum ticket we can issue is 300.

Uh and I know that there is a related home rule petition before the council right now to expand how much we can uh charge folks for these tickets.

I know there's been some concerns from some of my colleagues about not wanting the city to uh write tickets that are too large, but uh especially given the scope of uh let's say the income potential uh or value of some of these properties, the 300 really has not proven to be a deterrent.

Uh some of these larger property owners, uh especially with these uh absentee landlords.

So one thing I I will ask though is you know, we you mentioned that there were places where we did go back and do follow-up snow clearance uh in response to 3-1 complaints.

Um I believe we do have the capability or the legal authority as a city to bill people for services as opposed to fines for lack of compliance.

So in those cases, are we billing the owners uh for the time and costs the city incurs to do that clearance?

And how would we calculate that if so?

So through the chair, yes, I I think there is that ability.

The the way that we tried to do the pilot or the this area was to have it be sort of a more quick and dirty system, just not removing making sure somebody got a ticket and then removing.

Um we've been able to do it all with internal staff resources.

So it's really just the labor cost.

Um, but we could potentially calculate like the vehicle costs using FEMA rates or something like that.

Um the nice thing about the pilot is it's like a linear route.

So you can just get a list of tickets and just shoot down Broadway and then just shoot down school streets.

So it's pretty efficient.

Um yeah, that is a possibility.

Like if we you that's not to say that they couldn't get the ticket and get charge for the removal operation.

Yeah.

That's right.

And because part of this is me thinking about how to how this scales beyond uh a pilot on one or two streets.

Uh, this is something that um, you know, uh well, I'll I'll I'll get to Oak Street in a second.

But um, you know, uh I I'll say that, you know, we have used contractors here in the city for as long as I can recall to supplement the city crews and to greater or lesser extent to one contractor or another, uh, you know, and without getting into who owns what contractor and and uh to what extent we've used them, I I think it's pretty straightforward to acknowledge uh that we have a cost that we incur absolutely a particular cost uh that wouldn't have to necessarily be calculated on FEMA rates, but even just based on the uh hours uh that we use for contractors.

Yeah, that's a great idea.

I hadn't thought of that.

That we could just even though I mean that it may be like a law and being questioned, but that would be a great way to peg the cost of this just as an hourly rate based on the contractors.

Yep.

Because we know what we pay, and we're paying those contractors every year.

And for every for every piece of snow that we can't clear as a city, we're we're paying contractors anyway.

Uh so I I would love to come back to that because I think there is a larger uh piece about where um let's say whether it's due to uh consistent bad actors, uh a single a one-off occurrence, or just uh a recognizing the need for public safety to have some of these things cleared.

Um ensuring that we're not uh succumbing to the tragedy of the commons here any more than we already are is something that uh obviously is is on my mind.

So I I'll come back to that in a in a second.

I guess um I also wanted to say thank you for the the maps there on uh slide 15 for the dead ends and slide 19 for the the bike infrastructure routes.

I did have a question about uh slide 19, because uh I believe you had mentioned that those, and I'll be apologize.

I don't have my reading glasses, so this might be on me.

Um, but you you was talking about a separated bike facility list, and as I looked at um the route number two there, uh I believe that's Webster, uh, that it goes goes down Beacon, goes down uh Washington, goes down Webster, and then through Boynton Yards there.

Um I was just a little confused because not all of that.

I mean, obviously, uh Beacon for the most part has separated facility.

Washington Street for the most part uh has separate.

Um I'm guessing the interstitial connection there, there are stretches where it's not separated, but we still have it as part of the route just because you have from one place to another.

Is that right?

Yeah, like there's even some places on Broadway where there's not a separated facility, but they're still out there and they're still expected to keep their blade down or their brush on.

You know what?

I'm gonna start using that for the times when I'm uh still on the job after I'm not supposed to, by just saying I gotta keep my blade down.

Yeah, you gotta keep your blade down.

Yeah, yeah.

Hey, I'm stepping, I'm stepping away, uh, Vice Chair Hart.

Um, just take the controls if you need to, but that's all.

I'll be right back.

Yeah, be careful, Counselor Hart.

I might take over the whole dang meeting.

Um so uh I guess I was curious.

There was a reference there, and I wasn't sure if it was something I missed in the earlier slides about uh deprioritize separated bike facilities, having equipment reassigned for yes in so just to recap, when we found that in the bigger storm, this is the January storm, that the small bike uh equipment couldn't keep up with the the snow.

And so okay, all right.

So rather in in a big storm like over eight inches, we're going to reassign those to schools and to dead ends to sort of try to keep up with those, and then move back to um after the storm has removal operation in those facilities because like we were running them for the whole storm, and they would just as soon as they've gone down a street of plow would come and push the snow right back in.

They were really fighting against each other.

So it wasn't a productive use of um time and money.

Uh yeah, no, and I appreciate that.

And I also want to acknowledge that not all uh dead ends and private ways are created equal, right?

Keeping park place uh clear is relatively easy, it's wide and it's got uh dead end that you can't just you really can pile uh things up to a 20-foot wall.

Uh some place like Laurel Place, for example, is uh yep.

All right.

I I could go through a greatest hits list here in Ward Two.

I know please please.

I know you know.

Um, so uh I I just I do acknowledge that those are those are challenging.

And a lot of this uh does come down to the driver's familiarity.

As you said, there's you know, when somebody gets to the end of their route, uh it used to be the practice that hey, you know, you'll back down one of these and push things out into the street.

Um a lot of that uh you can't make up for necessarily by policy in the same way that you can with just having somebody who's driven that route for years who think the neighborhood who knows uh you know uh Ms.

McNamara needs right, yeah.

Uh so in terms of uh how does that impact our uh contracting versus in-house capacity kind of discourse and decision making?

So before my time, my understanding is that there were many more people on the plowing list, and it wasn't just highway, people would would plow from other city departments.

There was there's two basically two lists.

There's snow one, which is the highway department, and snow two, which is all other uh SMEA, SMEU staff um that want to sign the list.

Uh there is less and less interest in plowing outside of highway, although we do have a nice cohort of uh people that join from other departments, and we really appreciate them.

I think as we staff up and we have been staffing up, we're up, we're gonna have more and more people plowing.

Um we're also, I think to speak frankly, uh seeing a generational shift in some of the um some of the staff that you know 10 years ago would have been out in every storm is picking and choosing that they'd rather stay home.

Um but generally speaking, yes, I 100% agree with what you'd say.

Uh, like ideally you have people in the roots that know the roots that they have the roots year after year.

We try not to move people unnecessarily.

Uh, we try to uh train them in their roots.

We run a pre-season drill in November.

Uh, whether you're new or you've been there years to run your route, uh, look at new um mobility infrastructure that's happened, uh, be aware of road construction that might have changed.

Um so like we do what we can to train staff.

I think also uh many people have uh who work for the DPW have never plowed a 23 inch storm before.

So I think there is like and it's tough to train for that.

Um, unless we go up to Canada or something, which I wouldn't rule out.

But um, yeah, I I 100% hear what you're saying.

I agree with you.

Um, it'd be uh I wish we could just um have like the same people in their neighborhoods plowing the same routes year after year.

There is some turnover.

Uh some people, you know, like have to learn their roots in a given year.

Yeah.

Sure.

And I mean, I, you know, some of this is like you said, unavoidable operational uh turnover.

Uh and some of it is, you know, also when we change contractor, uh we lose a lot of uh that institutional knowledge that uh inherently has been stored in those contractors rather than uh in house personnel.

I'm curious about this uh volunteer list, the snow bee list.

Is that is that folks that have uh that like you said work for the city, yes, got trucks for them, but um, or they bring in their own trucks and plows.

No, no, just so they they work well there are some people in water that like their own truck, but um, yeah, and so it's like other people in the city uh that um are like not in highway.

So it's some people that are in other DPW divisions.

Um, it's some people that are in other city departments, like we have a handful of people from ISD, engineering, water, um people from like lights and lines that don't otherwise do snow operations, and they are a huge help, and we really appreciate them.

And so we always go to go through those lists before we call even one contractor.

Oh, that's that's excellent.

Well, you know, uh, I gotta tell you uh I'm I'm very interested in this list.

And uh uh this job that I'm sitting in doesn't pay very well.

So if you got an extra truck, let's talk.

Let's talk.

Um so I guess uh uh coming back to the specific operational questions here.

Yeah, um you know, one of the main questions that I get over and over is uh about uh plowing to the curb on the street parking, you know, odd parking side, even parking side.

Uh and I I think folks generally get the uh intention here, right?

Is we want to leave space for the plow trucks to operate and for us to push uh the snow somewhere.

Uh people tend to have the idea though, uh, well, um let me start with uh memories are tricky things.

And uh one of my colleagues, I think gotten a little bit of hot water on a neighborhood mailing list when folks complained about they've never seen snow clearance so bad before.

And uh, and he actually pulled out photos of the last seven storms and said, Well, you know, the street looks pretty much the same from my window of all these.

So um so I get it, memories are tricky, and when you're having a hard time, it's uh not the easiest time to compare uh against past performance.

But uh that said, one of the questions we get, oh my gosh.

Sorry.

We're saving energy here in the city.

Yeah, we are.

Yeah.

They they'd unplug the computer on me if they could.

I think uh so uh that said, I I know one of the questions I get a lot is, you know, why would we even have to move our cars if they're not gonna bother to plow plow that side of the street?

And I think some of the answer might be, well, the snow's got to go somewhere.

Uh, but also I was hoping maybe you could talk about uh the city's rationale and strategy for uh you know, snow emergency parking restrictions and the intention is uh or the direction is for plow drivers uh when say the odd side is clear cars.

Sure.

So the the reason we call snow emergencies is to allow our plows this space to operate.

And that's why we only do it in larger storms.

We try to only do it when a storm is forecasted to be over four inches.

Um and we'll we look at multiple things in terms of like what the forecast is following that, you know, if it's gonna be five inches but 69 degrees, like an April, you know, a March or April storm, you know, we might not declare snow emergency, et cetera, et cetera.

But the the idea is really to give our plows room to operate.

Uh a lot of people have different feelings about how close to the sidewalk we should plow.

For you know, some people in the same storm, someone can say we pushed too close to their curb.

Uh, some people say obviously we didn't push close enough.

One really nice woman um that we we were working on a snow issue said asked um if we could plow to the curb but not over it.

So like we're we're we're dealing with a lot and like and she, you know, she we she meant that I think you know she wants snow to come right up to the curb but not spill too far onto the sidewalk so that it's burdensome to clear.

And if you think about a 24-inch storm on a 12-foot roadway, pushing that onto a six-foot sidewalk, and these are all sort of generous um measurements.

It's a lot of snow to move on to onto the sidewalk.

Um, smaller storms, absolutely, we should be pushing to the curb.

It's something that I think that we need to restress with our staff, need to retrain with our staff, get into more practice tandeming with people.

We often have multiple pieces of equipment on our route.

Uh, I think we could do better.

Um, but I think we also just have to accept the fact that people are going to be frustrated with where that snow goes.

And we we do not try to plow people in.

We do not intentionally push snow in.

Like in the second storm, uh, we made an executive decision that we wherever we could, we were going to push what was what had not melted between January and February.

We were going to push as much of it away to make room for the next storm.

Um it's uh, you know, and like I would say also like as the streets have become narrower, um, we're using smaller equipment in the streets so that we can maybe call fewer snow emergencies, have smaller equipment in the roads, but the downside is that they can't push as much, right?

So you're having smaller equipment uh requires less licensure, more people can be on the snow, snow too, can participate in these snow emergencies.

It gets more complicated and there's more to sort of consider.

So yeah, I I would like to say that like going forward, we hope to push closer to the curb, particularly in snow emergencies.

Um, but there are uh downsides to that in terms of like what people will have to shovel.

No, I think that's true.

And I think there's obviously uh a balance of equities or a concern about you know how much are we uh performing road clearance for private car storage on public ways.

Uh so I I get that.

I think it's just um I think being able to articulate clearly to the public what the priority is and what the philosophy is that will help uh help folks to get clear in their heads, and if they you know they have a problem with it, well, that's a political issue, but um it it certainly I feel like would help to um cut short some of the perennial uh debates, let's say that happen amongst neighbors.

Yeah, I can I can imagine like a one-sheeter diagram could be really helpful to people.

Yeah, thank you for the feedback.

Yeah, because and and at least then the expectation is clear, and folks will know like, hey, we we're not asking you to move your car so that we can make sure the oddside parking is clear the day after the storm.

We're we're asking you to move your car so that we don't hit it and we've got a place to push the snow, and it is gonna mean that there's uh some private snow clearance that's gonna be required if you want to get access to the parking space.

So uh, you know, and I'm not saying that's the intent, but uh pardon my apologies, counselor Hart.

Did you want to follow up on that?

Pardon me.

I don't mean to interrupt, but before we changed off the subject, I did want to ask some follow-up questions.

So go for it.

I'll I'll hang back.

I gotta, I got about three more things on my list.

So, folks, so folks, uh, I mean, I'm just gonna put out there.

I mean, usually these meetings, you know, if it's really a short agenda, then we go, you know, whatever is long, not you know, not for that long, but where there is a lot.

I mean, I'm I'm fine with going to eight o'clock.

So like, but not beyond that.

But I'm saying, so we have time.

Uh, there's a lot of items here.

There's nine items on the agenda.

Then of course, there's so much, so many questions to go along with this uh post-morum of a snowstorm.

So feel free to jump around as well.

Okay.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, and thank you, Counselor Scott.

And I just want to say on this topic, it was something that I got a lot of questions about.

I really appreciate this discussion.

And also just to go back, I really appreciate your presentation.

Um I had a couple of um constituent uh concerns about this particular issue that I'd love to get your thinking on.

Um was um just an observation.

I don't know if you would agree with this that uh um that the parking on the even or odd makes things more passable in the immediate um aftermath of the storm, like the first day or two, but then beyond that this resident saw limited benefit.

Um so I'm curious about that.

I'm curious if you could reflect on like before we had this policy, you know, what benefit have you seen from since this policy was was instituted.

So that's one question.

Or the second, if I could just ask the second question, it's very related.

Was a constituent who raised the issue about um with climate change, we know that storms are gonna be um more, we're gonna see increased snowfall.

So we're gonna have more of these big snowfall events where um it is it is tricky.

Um, but just reflecting on the odd even policy given that expectation going forward in the future.

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Sure.

So I guess maybe I'll take the second part.

Um the I have only uh existed in this capacity in a post-flipping world.

So I I know that historically the snow emergencies were always on the even side, people always parked on the odd side.

I think what happened, I don't believe that that was changed for reasons of operational efficiency or uh snow removal ease.

It was strictly because uh it was frustrating to the people on the even side of the road that their driveways would always get plowed in.

Um so I guess I am um I think like from a enforcement and operational standpoint, it would be easier if things didn't change, right?

People would know their route one way, and that's the way it would be.

Uh, this is I think way above my pay grade, but uh I don't think that the that the ruling was or the the change was put in place for an operational reason reason.

Uh somebody with more experience than me could correct me on that, but that's that's my sense of it.

Actually, that I'm sorry to interrupt again, but that that's my mistake.

I was misremembering um and thinking just back to that change and thinking that we didn't have single-side parking um prior to that.

So I have to remember, but I guess so.

Compared to communities that I believe don't have that sort of policy where you can park on either side of the street, like I believe Cambridge.

So Cambridge still does snow emergencies and they still do have restricted parking.

They actually do it in a different way than we do, where they'll even keep some parking restrictions in place even after the snow storm is over.

They have a really cool uh snow map that they update uh regularly.

So um I think maybe they have like some cities, like Cambridge and Boston have different restrictions based on the time of like or uh the the size of the street, like they have to clear from major roads, but not neighborhood roads.

I'm not exactly sure.

Uh and then other cities like Watertown uh have no winter parking, you know, and like in a snow emergency, there's no parking allowed on either side of the street.

And I don't know to what degree they enforce that, but I think like, yeah, there's there's all different flavors of uh snow enforcement.

Um I think the feedback I get from my staff that have to actually plow the streets is they need snow emergencies, and if anything, they would like more of them because they want to be able to do their uh snow removal operations without damaging um people's property, without damaging city property.

Uh that's where they come from.

It's like very nothing gives me more anxiety than a four-inch storm, right?

Because a foreign storm could easily be an eight-inch storm or it could be a zero-inch storm, and you you hate to call a snow emergency when it when there shouldn't be one, and you also hate to call uh not call a snow emergency when you need one.

So yeah, so uh I guess I'll I'll uh withhold uh judgment on whether or not there should be you know snow emergencies or alternate side parking.

Um as to like does it get worse after I I know what you're like what you're describing, I think like during the storm, yes.

Well, like we're operating, we're clearing snow, the snow emergency is lifted, and what was once like a clear 12 feet of uh passage, now there's um cars parked on both sides.

Maybe I don't want to park uh on the other side all the way up to the curb because I'll have to climb out the window to get out of my car.

So then I'm a foot away from the snow bank.

Yeah, I do think it's an issue, and that's where we're talking um, like that's the time of the season where we're having constant communication with um the fire department, and they're saying, geez, we're getting really uh uncomfortable with how narrow walnut street is um and then working with them to do to post removal and clear uh you know for for public safety.

Or a trash truck can't get down the road or something.

That's not just public safety.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

And any thoughts on the like um increase of big storms and how that might affect policies.

Uh yeah, I you know, like I I haven't given it much thought.

Um like I think we do have a good framework here for how to handle storms.

I think like my recollection of 2015 is that they were um that they resisted lifting snow emergencies for longer.

So if we're in a situation where um like there's more big storms, maybe we look at um going towards uh all you know, all year round snow emergency.

I'm always amazed where where these cars go um during the snow emergency, and then they all of a sudden appear.

It's like uh some sort of parking miracle.

Um, but um, yeah, I I don't know.

Again, above my pay grade, I I think like, you know, like we should look at like maybe keeping the snow emergencies in place longer to keep the streets clearer or uh only lifting in certain streets and not lifting in others to keep them clear for uh public safety and things like that.

Thank you.

But not committing to anything in case anybody gets.

Yeah, of course, of course.

Just have the conversation.

And I have some further questions, but I'll hold them to allow the other counselors a chance.

Thank you.

Uh jump back in here, Mr.

Chair, just to clear it a couple more.

Yeah.

Uh all right.

Well, so I appreciate the discussion.

Uh, thank you, Councillor Hart.

Thank you, Director.

Um the two biggest concerns uh or two biggest problem areas we had were um I think one operationally was actually handled really well uh on the last storm we had, which was in terms of clearing teacher parking, you know, the bumpus bridge is a pretty facility there.

So I just want to acknowledge that it wasn't handled well early.

Yeah, it was a great adjustment.

Uh yeah, I want to thank you for putting that on my radar.

That was a priority for us.

Uh well, I mean, it definitely a priority for everybody who likes using the Argentiniano.

So uh and for the teacher.

So I appreciate that.

Um and I think it shows that we can uh make adjustments and improvements.

Um I uh I just wanted to acknowledge that.

The honestly, one of the most problematic uh concerns we had, and I know this was a joint venture between inspectional services and DPW, uh, was the shenanigans that happened down on Houghton Street, uh the Houghton Oak and Bolton area.

That was where we had video of a private construction contractor uh clearing the spaces in front of their project uh and dumping that snow on the ADA ramps and cuts that residents had cleared there.

Uh I know that's um uh uh complicated enforcement situation there.

Uh I was wondering if, because I know there's definitely folks in the neighborhood watching tonight, uh, if you could talk a little bit about that uh scenario and how the city, you know, we maybe didn't have a playbook when it happened, but what our playbook is going forward for that handling that kind of bad actor.

Yeah.

Uh yeah, again, I appreciate the the residents documenting that and providing the context.

Um and I don't, you know, like clearly there's some background there with the contractor and parking issues and stuff in the city.

Um you're certainly not allowed to put snow onto the under the street onto like put snow onto the sidewalks.

Um sorry, uh the pipes are participating.

Sorry.

Yeah, no, yeah, I'll I'll just talk through this.

Uh I apologize for the noise.

Um, but the um yeah, so so that this is something that we would coordinate with ISD about, and then I think ultimately we just send staff out to remove those scoop those out.

So uh I think like because there was some ambiguity about who was involved and whatnot, um something I'm maybe happy to follow up with ISD to have a clear plan.

Um I know it's happened in the past.

Uh I it was probably 2022.

There was a business that cleared out their small parking lot into a separated bike facility.

Uh and it would there was no doubt about where the snow had come from.

So we just called ISD, had them ticket, and then we went in and cleared that.

Yeah.

Oh, I mean, can I just jump in on that?

I mean, like, so I remember seeing a conversation on Reddit, and some people were fairly sympathetic to the they go like, oh, this is about a private plow situation.

But where do you expect them to put it?

It's like the same place I put my landlady's like back in the yard.

So basically, just because you're in a plow and you don't want to get out of the plow, like you should have to plow it into a pile and then get a snow, take a snowblower out of your pickup truck and snow blow it into the yard.

Like you can't, you're you know, just like we don't we don't let people discharge water into the public way or the like people that should be a strong message sent to people who utilize uh private plowing companies to do the driveway or you know, parking lots, like that they cannot put that snow onto our streets.

They're the worst offenders of blocking the ADA ramps and stuff too.

Yeah, that's something that I'm gonna be like be pursuing.

Anyway, sorry.

No, I mean it's it's fair, and I I know it uh grinds your gears uh as well, Mr.

Chair.

Uh I guess uh you know, this goes back to the maybe the earlier conversation I had about you know billing rates for uh private clearance here, and it's a tough one in that particular case because the contractor actually picked up, you know, use their bobcat to pick the snow up and move it in some cases, even a block away.

Yeah.

Uh so you know, by billing the property owners where the stuff got piled up, you know, again, it's a thorny enforcement issue.

I understand.

Um we have regular meetings with IST, I'd be happy to bring it up.

Yeah, I I just especially in a case like this where it was documented from multiple residents and multiple videos.

Yeah.

The subcontractor there.

Totally unacceptable.

Yeah.

Um, you know, and I guess one of the one of the things that uh is heartbreaking about that is I know how hard uh folks in the city work to keep things clear and how you know, really, like you said, they're not trying to plow anybody in, but when something like this happens, uh people's first response is well, the city must have done this to me.

Because who else is out there dumping snow or plowing up sidewalks?

And I just don't think that's fair for for anybody on the city side.

Yeah, you know, don't need more hostility towards uh folks just driving a plow uh for the city in these snow events.

Now I guess my final um my final, and I'll make this my my final little gripe.

Um, is I did get uh a fair number of complaints from folks where the bike infrastructure was right on uh going back to the bumpus bridge, right?

The bike structure is right there next to uh the sidewalk, which is the main route.

And unfortunately, there just wasn't any place for that snow to go.

Yeah, it wasn't a scoop out situation, it was one where you know, I I watched the little plow out there just kind of slamming backing up again, backing up slamming again.

Uh and so a lot of that uh snow ended up uh spilling over the wall and uh creating a blockage uh on the sidewalk there that had been proved.

Oh, okay.

So uh I know again, some of this is unavoidable.

Yeah, but it's those kind of misses that uh I think lead to uh I don't know, uh uh public irritation.

Uh yeah, decay of public trust.

So I appreciate that we're always working on uh those case-by-case uh issues, and I appreciate that you know, we're looking at uh snow removal holistically, like you said, there's the question of how many of those snow emergencies to call, and I pretty sure we've had a couple conversations in the last few council years where the snowfall was well below average, and yet our snow removal budget was uh uh uh above budgeted.

Uh we were over budget on snow removal.

And I know a lot of that is also to keep contractors happy because contractors do not have to work for the city, they could go work for other municipalities.

There's no shortage of folks in each trucks in these events.

Um so I know that we have occasionally called maybe more snow emergencies than strictly necessary just to keep contractors.

So I'm gonna push back on that.

Um I will say that there are some fixed costs of snow fighting.

Uh like we have to purchase some amount of salt and ice melt, and then um there's overtime costs, and um I think like there is a certain amount that you're like in for no matter what.

And then like once there is a uh not just a snow emergency, but like a three-inch storm, we might still need to bring contractors in.

And we're not we're certainly not manufacturing snow emergencies to line the pockets of contractors.

It's 100% uh operational.

I would love nothing more than to stay home and not oversee a snow emergency operation, I promise you.

Uh, and the uh the um the pockets of the contractors are the least of my concerns.

No, I understood.

And I'm not saying that uh, well, I'm not gonna use anybody's names.

Uh uh, I'm not saying it's a profiteering engagement here, uh, but it is certainly it is certainly the case where um, you know, we we do have to take that in consideration.

I just think it's another example uh when we look at what we budget for snow removal and look at uh you know what years we run way over versus what years we run a little bit over, because I hate to get in the weeds here.

Uh municipal finance, uh snow removal budgets is like the one place where we can run a deficit where where things get a little bit uh wibbly wobbly.

Um so I I don't want to go that far into the weeds.

Um, but I do just uh I for me it continues to come back to uh both for familiarity for continuity and for uh overall cost control.

You know, the more that we can continue to expand uh capacity in-house and uh bring those costs within our control, uh, I think the better the services and the better the predictability is for everybody.

So I'll get that.

And uh yeah, I agree with you.

100%, I will say uh like the more in-house we can do for snow fighting, the better.

I agree.

Uh one of the benefits of contracted labor is that you know, you know, like we don't need to have uh 50 sort of uh pieces of equipment and staff on standby at all times, right?

It's like this is like one of the the circumstances where it makes sense to um staff up quickly and then break down quickly seasonally.

But I agree 100%.

Like if we could do it all in-house, that would be my dream.

Yeah, well, one day.

Uh Mr.

Chair, I appreciate the the indulgence, uh, and I'll step aside.

Sure.

All right.

Um, so I just have a couple of things real quick.

So I um you know, I think it's important to set the table as far as like what the actual function of the DBW and the plowing is in terms of like it's mostly for public safety to get like make sure that we can get vehicles down the roads and stuff like that.

Um I think that sometimes people forget uh forget that piece of it.

Um I you know, so overall you've addressed overall snow great.

Um, like certainly like parking is always gonna be people are gonna get upset when we lose the when we lose the parking.

Um I do remember when we used to alternate and I do think it probably became a fairness thing.

I also remember when we used to go closer to the curve, and I thought that people we stopped getting as close straight because people were getting upset that you know that the snow, the heavy snow was ending up on the sidewalk.

Um, I don't know if counselor how was talking about if there's anywhere that you don't move the cars at all.

I'm trying to remember if that was ever the case in Somerville when I was a kid, if whether or not you know that I guess it would depend on the size of the storm because if you have you know 16 inches of snow and you go down the middle, you can certainly push a path down, but it's gonna basically bury in the both sides, you know, both the sides of the of like the cars, which I I want to I feel like we used to dig out or something, but but um but so I don't I don't you know as far as whether we should not switch back and forth, whether we should, whether it's even worth, you know, because a lot of people were saying that like why do they have us move the car as if you know um and I know you said it varied, like some of the contractors maybe they were a little light-handed on like how close they went.

And I don't know if that's just because they're just focused on literally a 12 foot path only, and yeah, they don't want to have to come, you know, back.

I'm not sure.

Yeah, I yeah, I don't think it's just the con.

I'm sorry, if I I'm I'm guessing um you know, I don't think it's just the contractors, it's our own staff too.

Like, so yes, there is like I've been out there with a plow driver when we, you know, pushed back while people were shoveling, and you can see how upset they get.

Um, and I think there's also like a fear of uh hitting your plow on the curb the closer you get.

So uh like I think for a number of reasons, people get shy, like curb shy.

Um, but I think that's something that we can work on with uh with training.

Okay.

And just another question that would just kind of clear up a way you can sort of split the split the difference, I think.

Another question just because it kind of clears up a mystery.

So a lot of people, there was a so there was a period where you'd you'd have a plow go by, and then all of a sudden, and I you know, I you could speculate as whether or not maybe you're waiting for this snow to build up.

I was telling people that I believe it was their sort of legally mandated break that people were on, but there was many people who got really concerned because there was like an eight-hour period where there were no plow went by um during that day on the second storm.

Um could you just clear clear up what that might have been?

If it is the fact that you know we do have to take these roads.

So yeah, by law, every 24 hours there should be six hours of rest for people operating.

Um mainly from CDL equipment, but it's it was reinforced through um through a decision uh prior to my coming here.

So yeah, that we we do try to uh schedule those breaks carefully based on sort of like how long guys have been on, guys or gals have been on, how long um like is there a lull in the storm?

Uh sometimes you kind of have to uh just take a break if not the ideal time, but because we need to give people breaks.

Yeah, I know this is only one time, like it's a short period of time every year, but like so two things I'm gonna this is just more throwing this out there, and I've kind of talked to the mayor about like a snow core, where like, you know, maybe even revamping the teen shoveling program because I feel like it's a little cumbersome to deal with uh I know this is separate from this, but to deal with like you know, the the seniors having to get quarried and all that, maybe there's a way we just go around as a team, but uh, or maybe like an um uh adopt a um a curb cut, but the the the main thing is um that I wanted to bring, I don't want to miss these items around the handicapped parking spot.

I know you did address that in the in the slideshow and said that you were going to, I guess you had you'd have a list of all of those particular spots.

Uh I know that 311 was good about well, you know, you guys were good about responding to a 311, where I did have if I did have a a resident who didn't have driveway access or anything like that, and they had a handy dedicated uh handicapped spot outside that you know, you guys put the stake in there and and tried to get to it as quick as you could.

Um but um so and also I want to say that you know that was one of my big I tried to get language because I know that it technically right now is the is the the onus is on the property owner as far as if you abut a curb cut uh slash pedestrian crossing, you know, 88 ramp.

Um so I don't know that everybody knows that.

Um I guess just things to take back is if you could like I don't know if you had I know we have however many miles of road on the numbers, and then you have to obviously double that for sidewalks, but a few things uh I know we've talked about the potential of like clearing all the sidewalks.

Um I'll probably put I'll probably put a council order in about like pricing that out or whatever.

Uh all right, I'm gonna so I'm gonna turn it back over because we are getting short on time.

I would be curious, Counselor Clinton.

Do you know anybody around here that's doing that?

No, but like people always cite to me, like other like people in other states, like like Rochester, you know, and I get it that our streets are unique and that there's some squeeze points, but I'm just saying, like, you know, if we could get it manageable, I don't know if it'd be in the trillions of dollars, like that's what I mean.

If we could just play it out just to see, and again, I know it's such a small period, but that's why I always feel like two snow becomes a weird scenario where we you know it doesn't happen that often enough that we you know don't really explore these things, but and you know, whatever.

Uh let's just go back to uh my colleagues.

Um, but I do want to address specifically the handicap ramps and stuff like that.

If we have if we still have time, but I see questions.

Um we'll go to counselor hot.

You have you have the floor.

You haven't really said much.

Um thank you, Chair Klingon.

I just wanted to say uh a few things particular to the western part of the city in my ward.

Um one, just to convey to the any viewers in Ward Six or Ward 7.

I didn't actually realize this until after the first storm.

But on the city's website, the snow clearing page, you can find information about a Tufts garage that you can park in during a snow emergency.

But you do have to register.

You have to email them to register ahead of time.

So just wanted to let anybody in ward six or seven who might be watching this know about that option.

And then a few kind of pain points that I in Ward 7 that I saw that I still have questions about.

One is if you could say more about the Dillboy lots and what is or isn't available for emergency parking.

That into the city has very few options for, you know, there's no city lots other than the Dilboy lots to park in.

And the Tufts Garage.

But just wondered if you could say something about that.

Teal Square.

We didn't see much, you know, in the days following the storm of snow removal.

And so I wanted to just be sure that that's on the public square.

I know it's not the top priority, but just want to be sure Teal Square is included in public squares that are cleared because we didn't see much of that.

And then third, I appreciated Counselor Scott's questions around the sidewalk.

And there are several abandoned properties that, you know, the sidewalk just never got shoveled after repeated tickets.

And so I'd love to know if those will be, you know, be able to be um plowed at cleared and then the path build uh like in the pilot, that would be great going forward.

So though I just wanted to put those all out there.

I would love to hear your your comments.

Thank you.

Sure, sure.

So um for the Dilboy lots, uh, we use those as like where we where we host the um towing operations.

So that's why they're not available during snow emergencies.

I think once the emergency is lifted, or once the tow truck is uh like vacates it, uh the operation shuts down basically.

They can people can park there, I believe, but they should consult parking because that's sort of beyond the scope of DPW.

Um the second question was about teal square.

So teal square should be cleared uh with the other squares.

It's considered one of the clearance squares.

So when we're doing snow clearance, teal square is one of the one of the the squares.

It's not less than the other uh square.

So I'm surprised to hear that.

Um I'll follow up internally about that.

I was really surprised to hear that.

And then the last question was about like repeated ticketing areas.

Um yeah, we have not done like a sort of billing process in the past.

That's something we can look at for next year.

But um, I think like enforcement questions you may want to follow up with ISD uh about particular um, I think they they like you know, I I don't know exactly, but like for rodent issues, like they have you know, certain like if there's a problem property, they have certain things that they can do for problem properties.

So I don't know if that's available for snow or uh enforcement or not.

That would be sort of near wheelhouse.

Just to follow up quickly, I think you know, the big the what we want to happen.

I mean, ideally we want the property owner to take care of it, but the in the immediate term, we want people to be able to walk on the side.

Absolutely and not have to go into the street.

So um I think it would be beneficial to just clear it and uh if there if that's possible.

But thank you.

Councilor Scott.

Uh thank you, Mr.

Chair, and uh promise I'll keep it brief.

I I acknowledge you'd like to keep camp on this, and I'll be honest with you, tonight is my 20th anniversary, so I'm in congratulations.

Deep trouble for how late we go tonight.

Uh I think I'm gonna get billed by the minute.

I'll try to be brief.

Um I just wanted to bring up uh since we were talking about bike infrastructure and uh the plowing, you know, uh the a lot of work went into making sure that we had concrete uh separators on the bike lane on Washington Street, and one might be forgiven uh for considering uh that it might be the mission of uh certain cloud drivers to make sure every one of those concrete curves got torn out of the ground.

Um let's just say this way uh where some of these snow piles have been piled up, there's a very large uh collection of excess uh concrete barriers that were uh taken out.

I know this is always a tension.

Um I appreciated what you said about the dry run that happens in November.

Um but I just didn't know if that had been part of the post-mortem discussions and if you had anything to relay, because I've been contacted uh not just by parents at the school who are uh worried about the large amount of concrete and rebar still left in the yards, those snowpiles melted, but also from uh obviously uh pedestrian and transit and bicycle advocates who are concerned about what is frankly one of the best new streets in Somerville, uh getting a little bit more up there.

No, no, no, no one has reached out directly to me on that.

Um I will say that we are uh we have ordered a bunch of flex posts to be replacing flex posts.

Uh it's uh I think you know, this year uh was kind of an eye-opener about how many uh flex posts could be uh knocked over because it's we haven't had a storm or a winter like this where we've had the you know lost so many.

Uh so I think you're gonna see our staff out uh replacing bike infrastructure uh very soon.

Um and I will certainly follow up about the those um those concrete curves.

Yeah, I mean, maybe that's one to take up with uh director Ross and uh cross-collaborative meeting, just because I know that uh, for example, in that project, uh the city's uh budget for repaving and reconditioning that street actually came up a little bit short.

And uh Director Rosson uh devoted some of his transportation budget to making sure we could get those uh concrete curbs installed.

So uh we'll be spending some highway budget to get them reinstalled.

Well, you know what?

I I love having the highway guys get more work to do.

Uh yeah.

Uh speaking of which I gotta call you about a sidewalk panel tomorrow.

So we'll talk.

Thank you, Ms.

Shorter.

Oh, you're welcome.

So I just gotta do a lightning round recap.

So uh number two um mistakes made, lessons learned, you have a plan going forward.

Uh number three, by and large, the the uh pilot program is working as intended.

Um tickets were given for the most part.

Um I don't know if I can attest that in my area or not.

I know that this I don't know.

Are we going to the to the actual 36 inch?

Like, are we getting out there only because there's a church old funeral home at the corner of Sycamore Broadway that and they have a bunch of young able-bodied people on there?

Oh, this has come up before.

I get constant I get constant complaints that they're not, and they have a big you know area, right?

Because they're on Sycamore and Broadway, and it's like route to school.

So um, but I know that all right.

So anyway, um Yeah.

So those are those are enforcement questions.

Um I can't speak to how they measure.

Just no, this is just about the pilot here.

And then number four, uh, we pretty much covered, I mean, as part of the post-mortem.

Um, I guess as far as what counselor Scott, uh you and camping was saying about um uh about resources or policies, I guess, you know, obviously resources, money always we could always use more.

As far as policies, I think that that's probably on the you know, probably on the the mayor's office to kind of like look at how we're communicating these the policies essentially, right?

Like um or even talking about why you know we may not go as close.

We we may we may not you know go to close to the curve.

Um number five.

We didn't really get an like a question and answer on number five.

So the policy prohibiting parking on all alternating sides of the street journalcy.

It um so we intend on continuing the alternation, right?

I mean, like I said, like we kind of got here out of in the name of fairness because people felt like, hey, our side, you know, we we know every year it's the same old thing, you know.

Um did that kind of help clarify, Council Hart.

Yes.

Uh I I mean, I feel like the discussion covered it.

And it was really my poor wording in the resolution because I really meant prohibiting parking on one side of the street rather than the you know, the just the policy overall of not allowing parking on both sides of the street.

So I feel like we did cover that.

Okay.

All right.

Um, and then um the the uh so the two the two ones like I said, I and I know we're close to the to eight here, but so it sounds like with the with the handicap parking spots.

Um you do kind of you you are your intention is to prioritize those spots.

Yes.

Um probably you can get a list from traffic and parking or whatever.

We have the list.

Okay, I put those on the all right.

Um, but then very specifically though, do you have any ideas or what is it?

the two the two ones like I said I and I know we're close to the to eight here but so it sounds like with the with the handicap parking spots um you do kind you you are your intention is to prioritize those spots yes um probably you can get a list from traffic and parking or whatever and we have the list okay and put those on the all right um but then very specifically though do you have any ideas or what is I I understand that it's current like in in the slideshow and as I tried to strengthen the the language to the abutters whether it be business or uh residential that if they're at a curb cut now there's also the challenge of we know that sometimes that's where the plow you know that's where these kind of heavier mounds of snow end up down the ends of the streets but but what I said at the meeting I meant in terms of like you know I know it's a short period of time I know it's really difficult to put snow and figure out where to put it and but I feel like if somebody can't see and they use a white cane like can we you know get to the level of care and the level of um you know effort to make sure that somebody could safely traverse you know to some degree of a reasonable degree um through the city without being able to you know see or being in a wheelchair I know that that seems like it seems like a it shouldn't be a big lofty goal but it it may seem like it but that's really been the you know not only from the advocates and everybody I mean we recognize and and like I said myself I I tried to really firm this up after last year.

I don't know how we get the message to people um I don't I mean technically the reason why I wanted to firm it up is because technically they could be ticketed um based on our policies um but we don't really enforce that one so I guess do you have any ideas on how we can ensure that those ramps are clear I I I am gonna have to go back to the presentation and say um it really is an enforcement issue and I I see on uh red Radassi has her hand up she's must be dying to speak here what's going on thank you Mr.

Chair I just wanted to jump in and make sure that Eric wasn't put uh and term commissioner wiseman wasn't put in an awkward spot here um as he was already saying this is more of an enforcement issue so I've been taking notes throughout this meeting um seems like there's a couple follow-ups for mayor's office and for ISD so I'm happy to follow through on this and and the thing is I don't mean to put on the spot but I mean if he if if you know Commissioner Weissman was to come up with some sort of idea um that you know that may that may be more more I don't like the bottom line is is my idea heated ramps I mean yeah heated ramps and crosswalks.

Yeah I mean it's say many times to Brian uh uh you know Brian posts but that's what I'm but that's but that's what I'm saying like like you know even if it's even if it's something like even I say like about pricing out doing all the sidewalks right like getting a you know jumping on a truck you get in your whatever like a so like yeah I doing all the sidewalks is it would be like massive it's just like it's really difficult to wrap my head around like the like what that would look like um in and like I feel like we've we basically abandoned the idea of like a law was passed that people are responsible for clearing their sidewalks and we haven't really uh borne that out like you know really tried to make that work uh and then have said okay well they're just throwing our hands up and say this isn't uh this isn't possible um so yeah that's I agree that's what that's what I but that's what I mean even to the point where we're compromising on people like people's safety as far as the ramps go so this isn't to put you on the spot and I agree completely with Aison Radassi is that this is about communication from the city like whoever that is from the administration and and it and it like it will take a real public education campaign to get people to understand that you know while it may stink that like you may have a like a you may be on a corner and you have a little bit more um you know like some heavier snow we have to all pitch in somebody has to do it um or we have to do it as a city that's all I'm saying is like I'm just trying to balance come come to a come to a solution that will get us where we need to be which is like you know it's pretty bad one.

I mean I've seen some pretty bad curb cuts you know covered with snow and like I said sometimes it isn't it is a matter of like our plows have maybe dropped it there and I just I don't know I don't I don't know what you know and I know it's for a short period of time every year but I mean snow can sometimes last we were lucky this time it melted pretty quick but snow can sometimes last for a long time and uh you know I'm glad to even hear the the MBTA stops are on us because I just remember that winter in like 2017 or 18 when the bus stops were like a sheet of ice for what up on Winter Hill in front of like the brewery there for a long like weeks like weeks and weeks so um I always because I think the city at that point was saying that that's on the MBTA somehow I don't know like they were going to come out but so it's always a little bit of the shifting but all in all amazing job I don't even know how you logistically do it like I say to myself like you said like with the contractors right I mean the world's zero oyster when it's snow like how do we how we even able to secure how many people are out there with trucks that are willing I know it's good money but I'm just saying but

So um, I always because I think the city at that point was saying that that's on the MBTA somehow.

I don't know like they were gonna come out, but so it's always a little bit of the shifting, but all in all, amazing job.

I don't even know how you logistically do it.

Like I say to myself, like you said, like with the contractors, right?

I mean, the world's zero oyster when it's snow.

Like, how do we how are we even able to secure how many people are out there with trucks that are willing?

I know it's good money, but I'm just saying, but that are able to do this when every city is probably fighting for this same pool of of drivers.

So, you know, um, understanding not want to upset anybody, but also, you know, don't want to upset our constituency either.

So, but great job, Eric.

Uh you know, Commissioner, um, intro questioner Weissman.

Um, and then one thing I wanted to say that was kind of funny was you know, it shows your approach.

Uh, the approach of DPW in general was um you go, yeah, something about the community path, because we've had it for a few years, and you go, yeah, there was one storm and we lost the path.

It was on it's almost like in the terms of war.

We were like, like, like we lost the path to that storm for a little while, but then you know we regrouped and kind of had it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, I I get it.

This is it's it's it's pretty an amazing in uh the undertaking that you all do.

All right, any last thoughts from colleagues.

All right, let's hope this is the last we're even just saying the S-word uh except for the next council meeting when I do this report.

But yeah, seriously, we did have that April 1st storm.

So um great stuff, great presentation.

Thank you very much for doing this.

Thank you all.

Um Clerk, uh Mr.

Clerk, just so you understand what what's happening.

Um item one we took care of two, three, four, six, eight, and nine are work complete.

Uh items five and seven, we'll keep in committee.

And we don't have anything to vote on except for adjournment.

So with that, counselor Hart uh moves to adjourn.

Mr.

Clerk, if you don't have any questions about the agenda, um roll call, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

On adjournment, counselor Scott.

Yes, please.

Counselor Hart.

Yes, Chair Cling.

Yes, good night, everybody.

Thank you.

This committee is adjourned.