The year 2011 was a historic one for western Massachusetts. From a tornado to a tropical storm, the region was hit hard by Mother Nature last year.
In Southwick, the Oct. 29 snowstorm left the greatest impact on residents, many of whom were without power for a week. One of the biggest problems for the town was downed trees and the debris they left all over Southwick.
Just last week, the final efforts to clean the town’s Rail Trail were complete and a celebration is planned for this afternoon.
“It started as a celebration of the cleaning of the Rail Trail and grew into a party to thank everyone who helped clean after the storm,” said Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Jeffrey Neece.
The lunch party takes place today at the DPW building on College Highway from 1-4:30 p.m. for anyone who participated in storm clean up throughout town.
The event was the idea of Bill Derosia of Great Brook Lumber and his brother Don who owns Derosia Tree Service.
“We just wanted to have a little get together in town,” said Bill Derosia. “The main idea was to let people know the Rail Trail is open and say thank you to the town.”
Derosia said he plows for the town and, when the storm hit, he decided to make his way to the center of town to start plowing. Unfortunately, he got stuck and it took more than five hours to go from South Loomis Street to college Highway.
“My son had to come out on a snowmobile with a chainsaw to get me out,” said Derosia.
As he was trying to plow through the snow, a tree came down on the hood of his truck. Once he was free from that tree, another came down on the back of his truck.
“There were trees coming down around me – there were 40 or 50 trees across the road and electrical wires coming down above me,” Derosia said.
Town officials were proactive in responding to the storm and Derosia was asked to form a crew to begin getting the trees out of the road.
“They hired us and we went to work until the federal government came in,” Derosia said. “I thought it was really professional the way the town handled the response.
“They really stepped up to the plate.”
Derosia said in his 35 years in the business, he had never seen such storm destruction.
“That’s not something I’d want to do every day,” he said of the post-storm cleanup.
The Derosias want to thank the town officials, including Select Board, police, fire and emergency management, as well as others involved in the cleanup, for their efforts.
Neece said the superstitious brothers do not work on Friday the 13th so they decided today would be a good day for the celebration.
“We expect about 100 people to come,” said Neece, who will serve as a chef for the event along with the Derosias.
On the menu is rib-eye, corn and baked potatoes.
Neece said it is unusual to have a thank you party for officials from those who help clean up round town, but then again, 2011 was a very unusual year.
