SOUTHWICK – DPW Director Randy Brown discussed his revised snow and ice removal policy with the Select Board last week. This type of policy isn’t mandatory for municipalities in the state, but it is strongly recommended as a majority of towns do have one.
After the town legal counsel reviewed it, the Select Board’s purpose during the meeting was to provide any comments or questions they may have.
In the policy, Brown would want to minimize the amount of salt that residents put on sidewalks. Although, Select Board Clerk Russ Fox has been against that aspect of the policy as he’d rather see people have that option to use as much salt that they feel is best during the winter.
“I don’t have any problems with people going down to the DPW and getting some sand with a little salt in it,” said Fox.
Southwick DPW Director Randy Brown. (Photo courtesy of Greg Fitzpatrick)
Brown has a reason as to why he’s standing by his policy.
“Salt is a corrosive product and it can cause damage to concrete,” said Brown. “We want to minimize those impacts.”
At the meeting, Brown and the Select Board came to an agreement that the language in the policy will say that “salt should be minimized”.
As for the rest of the policy, aspects include snow maintenance which features types of treatment on each road in town, on-street parking rules, and a mailbox replacement policy.
Brown also added that any damages by town plows to mailboxes, a person’s lawn, or any other property, has its own policy in which a follow-up would be required, an investigation, and then determine if the town is liable or not.
Despite the disagreement with the salt portion of the policy, Fox is very pleased that Brown has decided to create a snow and ice removal policy which he considers a benefit for the citizens ofSouthwick.
“If in fact there is an issue that arises, you can refer to the policy,” said Fox.
Since the policy is not completely finalized yet, Brown said that it should be official in the next couple of weeks and will be posted on the Town of Southwick website.
