News Stories, BNEWS Weather

Post Storm Clean Up Continues, Trash Pick Up Delayed

The Burlington Department of Public Works has been hard at work in response to last night’s storm but due to heavy snow conditions the work continues. 

DPW Director John Sanchez said the contractors began at about 4 p.m. Monday afternoon when the snow started to fall in earnest. He said the plan was to have as many pieces of equipment on the roads as possible because the area has not seen a storm this large since March of 2018, 

“I have to say it was a long night,” he said. “We hadn’t seen a storm like this in three years.” 

In total the town had 82 pieces of equipment out during the peak of the storm, with 31 of them being from the town itself, including from the Parks and Recreation Department. They had to tackle upwards of 18 inches of snow that fell in Burlington and Sanchez said he was proud of the work they accomplished. 

“The guys worked their butts off,” he said. “Everybody, contractors, Recreation crews and our own employees.” 

However, despite the overnight effort, the work continues. Sanchez said part of the reason is that in the middle of the night the snow briefly turned to rain, making the accumulation that much heavier. 

“It snowed until like 4 or so in the morning and then just had to turn to rain just to make it heavy for good measure and then back to snow for a few more hours,” he said. 

Because of that, crews will continue to be out working the next couple of days. He said the first priority is to cut back some of the snow banks around intersections to improve visibility. They will then tackle the municipal parking lots and be out in residential neighborhoods widening the roads. Finally they will get to sidewalks, which Sanchez said could take a couple of days. 

“The sidewalks will take some time because of how heavy the snow is,” he said. “It will take a couple of days to get to all of them.”

Sanchez also had a couple of requests for residents. The first was to be patient as crews are working. The second is to clear any fire hydrants near your property. Third, if possible, he asks that residents clear catch basins to help prevent flooding as the crews work on getting out to the residential neighborhoods to widen the streets. 

Finally, due to the storm trash pickup has been delayed until Friday.