Newtown’s Motorized Marathoners

Plowed Through The Fatigue

By Steve Bigham

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Members of the Newtown highway department finally got a chance to catch up on some sleep Wednesday afternoon after working day and night for nearly three days.

The plow drivers went into work Sunday at 3 pm and continued into midweek. For as many as 72 hours, with little sleep in between, this crew of 30 or so maneuvered its way along Newtown’s 300 miles of roadway, blasting away anything that lay in its path.

This strange storm named “Emily” ended up dumping little more than a foot of snow on the area. What made it unique, however, was not only how long it took to get here, but how long it took to leave.

“This has been rough,” noted Public Works Director Fred Hurley Tuesday afternoon. “It’s been hour- after-hour with no end in sight. The duration has really been a killer. It isn’t so much the amount of snow, although it has been tough because it is so heavy.”

Mr Hurley calculated that the town’s fleet of trucks plowed 6,000 miles of roadway, which is the equivalent of driving to California and back, only there was no Hollywood sunshine to be found. The highway crew did earn its keep, however, pulling in a total of $41,671 in overtime pay, which does not include normal hourly pay for its time during normal working hours.

On Tuesday morning, part of the crew was seen grabbing a cup of coffee and an omelet at Steven’s Deli on South Main Street.

“What day is it?” they asked, half jokingly.

The high winds and treacherous conditions predicted for Monday night never actually happened, and that turned out to be a blessing for the highway department, which still had to endure its share of troubles. Two large trucks and one small truck were rendered unusable after sliding off the road. In one incident, one of the plow driver is believed to have suffered a mini stroke after driving off the side of the road and not remembering it happening.

“We lost a truck and we lost a driver,” said Mr Hurley, who is hoping both will be back out on the road soon.

As usual, the tired highway department received its share of complaints from residents unhappy that plows had pushed snow into their driveways. But there were also plenty of good words said about the fine job done by the highway department this week.

On Tuesday, Superintendent of Schools John R. Reed opened up the middle school cafeteria and served lunch to snow removal workers from the Board of Education, Parks & Recreation, and Highway Department. While Schools Building & Grounds Supervisor Dominic Posca cooked the soup, the hungry bunch dined on chicken sandwiches.

“It was a great morale booster for everybody. We had already been at it for two days and there was no sign of it slowing up,” Mr Hurley said.

With the roads finally cleared for the re-opening of schools, the highway department crew was finally sent home at noon on Wednesday. Joe Tani, director of highways, had been at the highway department garage on Turkey Roost Road since 3:30 pm Sunday afternoon.

“I’m just going home now and I’ll probably have three hours of shoveling when I get there,” he said.

The highway department was expected to be called in early Thursday morning to sand roadways that have frozen over during the night. And more snow was forecast for Friday and Saturday.