- There will be school in the City of Melrose tomorrow, Tuesday, February 12.
- School Department-approved sidewalk routes have been cleared, and you can see maps of the routes on the city website. DPW is working on intersections.
- Nonetheless, walking to school will be treacherous because of the amount of snow and ice. There is no way to avoid this. We are asking everyone, if possible, to limit walking to school. Every day things will improve and become more accessible. We thank you for your patience.
- A Melrose police officer will be stationed in front of our schools tomorrow to assist with traffic and drop-off. Please be very patient during dropoff and give yourself ample time.
- The on-street parking ban has been lifted; however, we ask people to avoid parking on the street unless it is absolutely necessary, so we can continue to widen the roads and clear the areas around catch basins and fire hydrants. Your cooperation is needed to ensure our progress continues in order to improve accessibility and safety.
- Police and fire personnel have been driving the city identifying roads that need to be widened as emergency routes. As we return to widen those streets that are already plowed, snow will be pushed back into driveways and sidewalks. This is unfortunate but a necessary process. We must widen these streets to make fire hydrants accessible, to clear the catch basins (in light of the rain predicted for this week), and to maximize on-street parking for the rest of the winter.
- The business districts will be cleared overnight on Tuesday, February 12, along with municipal parking lots. This is an ongoing cleanup process with a full staff of DPW working around the clock to move and haul snow. This is a lengthy process and we appreciate your continued cooperation and your efforts in helping us clear around catch basins and fire hydrants.
- Trash and recycling pickups will continue on their regular schedule all week.
- Please call our snow operations center, 781-665-0142, with any questions or issues regarding snow.
Hundreds of students walk to our neighborhood schools each day. How can a student avoid walking to school if that is how he/she normally gets to school? How does a student get to an approved yellow route if the sidewalks in his/ her neighborhood are not clear? How can a student be safe if he/she must walk tomorrow when “walking to school will be treacherous”?
I certainly understand your point, but it is the collective responsibility of the city, the school department, and parents, to get students to school safely.
In a storm with 30″ of snow it is impossible to avoid snowbanks, ice, etc. It is our responsibility to provide access routes, it is parents’ responsibility to transport their children to school as safely as possible. That may mean making special arrangements for the next several days. Every day things will improve in terms of not only what the city can provide but also what homeowners and businesses can provide in terms of their own frontage.
Along with our own efforts, we have asked people with snowblowers to go the extra distance and clear sidewalks for their elderly or disabled neighbors. This is a community effort, not just a city effort, due to the magnitude and historic nature of this storm, and in many neighborhoods people have stepped forward to help out not just with clearing sidewalks but also digging out fire hydrants and catch basins. Citizens, businesses and city employees are working tirelessly in this historic storm with the focus of making the city safe, and our staff are on duty 24 hours a day to get us to that point.
I live on Lovell Road in the Horace Mann school district. My street is still a disaster as of 7:22am on Tuesday morning. It is a one lane, rutted cow path that is going to freeze over if they don’t clear it soon. Crews worked hard at the end of the street at the corner of Damon to clear banks for kids walking to school, however the rest of the street is awful and dangerous. I noticed it is not this way on Boardman and several other of the streets parallel to Lovell. Did you forget our road? One of the biggest problems is the absolutely HUGE pile of snow that someone plowed up at the Lovell and Main Street intersection that is completely blocking one lane of travel. This highly dangerous, we can’t see to get out on Main. Please do something.
-Liz McNamara Liwo
85 Lovell Road
Hi Liz, Thanks for letting me know. I spoke to DPW and they will be by today.
Thank you. I very much appreciate any help.
Liz
Please widen and salt Glen Street–It is a heavily traveled road with cars cutting through to get to washington street and the Lincoln elementary. It’s dangerous enough with all the cars that use it let alone having only one lane to go down. The opening onto the fellsway needs to be widened significantly as well (though that could be in Stoneham). There are also huge piles of snow on all the corners making it hard for cars to see around. thanks.
Thanks for the input, Molly! We have referred the issue to DPW and they are on it. And you’re right, the opening to the Fellsway is in Stoneham, but we all work together.
Thanks for letting us know! We will send it to DPW. If you see other issues, please call DPW at 781-665-0142 as this is the most direct way to communicate your concerns.
I echo the concern about children walking to and from school. My children have no choice but to walk both ways. I work full time, and do not have anyone who is available to be on call to play chauffeur – my middle schooler leaves the house while I am getting ready for work and stays after school for homework help and other activities, none of which have a set ending time. My fifth grader leaves after I head to work and walks to various after school activities. I drove along both of their walking routes late last night and thought that the sidewalk-plowed sidewalks were a disgrace, particularly the intersections. I called the DPW this morning to report some of the intersections and the woman I spoke to was far from pleasant.
Let me know which intersections you are referring to. DPW has been working on improving intersections but there are always more to do!
I really appreciate your responsiveness. Much of the sidewalk on Franklin Street was in rough shape, particularly the intersections with Chipman and Ashland. I appreciate that the crews have been working hard, but Cliff Street and Henry Ave. are in really rough shape (or were when I left the house this morning). I’m particularly concerned about Henry at West Highland due to the bus stop for the charter school at that location.
DPW has been notified. In future, feel free to call DPW directly and if you aren’t happy with the response, call our office and let us know.