SOUTHWICK – For many property owners on College Highway, a double dose of snow proved too much to handle with the town’s new sidewalks.
Without tree belts, plows pushed snow onto sidewalks where it packed and hard- ened almost into snowbanks.
The Board of Selectmen last night dis- cussed what to do to alleviate the problem and decided to move forward with a dem- onstration of two types of equipment that the town could purchase to help home and business owners break through the snow.
“It looks like 60 percent of the sidewalks were cleared somewhat, and 40 percent weren’t touched,” said Selectman Russell Fox.
All board members received calls from property owners following last week’s
storms complaining about the difficulty of removing the packed snow.
Selectwoman Tracy Cesan said she sees two options – close the sidewalks or find a way for the town to help.
“But we should be fair and balanced,” she said.
Fox said being equitable had to take a back seat to safety.
“This is a hardship created by the Commonwealth and the state’s walked away from it,” said Fox.
Cesan said there were very few property owners who could manage to remove the snow on their own.
Last month Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Jeffrey Neece told the board about a machine for lease or pur- chase through the company Tri County that could remove sidewalk snow. Fox asked if they could see a demonstration before pur-
chasing the equipment. “There are other options, too,” said
Neece. Neece said the Tri County machine was
a small tractor, but a Bobcat could also work.
“A similar size snowblower would be mounted on both machines,” he said, add- ing the Bobcat with blower would be about $50,000 and the tractor with blower would cost about $80,000.
Neece said both pieces of equipment could be used for other purposes year- round. They both have enough horsepower to deal with the snow, he added.
Fox said the equipment could be used to assist property owners in removing heavy snow.
“I suggest we do it like Agawam and go through and break it up so it’s manageable for property owners,” Fox said.
