WATERBURY – Waterbury public works crews continue to work around the clock cleaning up after Tuesday’s blizzard.
The storm dropped more than a foot of snow on the city’s 312 miles of plow-able roads, and some of them are still messy Thursday.
“We’re in much better shape today although there’s still a lot of work to be done,” said Joe Geary, Director of Operations for the city of Waterbury.
“We’re still out in full force with approximately 30 vehicles on a daily basis scraping, removing snow and also sanding and salting,” he said.
In hilly neighborhoods and on steep streets, patience is starting to wear. Kenya Walker and Lucky Hardy live on a hill in the city’s north end. They’ve been walking instead of driving since the storm.
Walker said, “I had a friend who was supposed to come up this area and she didn’t want to come because the roads are so bad.”
“This is dangerous and we’re going to be getting more snow,” said Hardy.
There is more winter weather in the forecast, but Geary said the city should be able to handle the cost. They also have a contingency fund for situations like this.
“It’s getting tight. I don't think we've exceeded this year's snow budget yet because the numbers from Tuesday up until today aren't in yet, but we're going to be very close to meeting what we had put aside this year for snow removal if not exceeding it the next couple days or with any subsequent storms,” said Geary.
He added, “It’s not a major concern at this time. A major concern would be another storm of the magnitude the other day.”