Allan Appel Photo
As plows fought back against an overnight blizzard, Howard Weissberg jumped out of his Ford F350 pickup truck on Front Street, where a man was pushing snow into the road.
“You can’t push snow onto the right of way,” he called out.
Weissberg, deputy director of the city Department of Public Works (DPW), stopped his white truck near Quinnipiac River Park, where the contractor was clearing a condo parking lot by pushing a pile of white stuff into the street.
“You can feather it out,” Weissberg told him in a courteous but firm voice. “And watch out for the barrier.”
Weissberg and the city crews were out in force Sunday and Monday, digging out from the season’s first blizzard that dumped over a foot of snow across the city, shutting down trains, forcing businesses to close and tearing down power lines.
In the basement of the Hall of Records, top city officials convened late Sunday night in an emergency operation center, ready to help out 3,000 East Shore residents who were left in the dark after power lines went down around 9:30 p.m.
Weissberg’s boss, DPW Director John Prokop, joined a half-dozen top emergency officials at 11 p.m. Sunday in the subterranean hideout stocked with 1,000 emergency meals and 8,000 gallons of water. They were concerned that people would be left without heat or without telephones. Power was restored to the homes within three hours, and the safety officials went home by 3:30 a.m., according to Rick Fontana, deputy director of the city’s emergency management office.
Weissberg reported to duty just before midnight Sunday night. Monday morning, he was behind the wheel of his pickup truck with a yellow plow on the fender, checking out the streets.
All told, 21 vehicles, three supervisory vehicles and five contractors were out on the road Monday morning. The outside contractors were doing the big arterials, Weissberg explained to a reporter on 40 minute tour of Fair Haven’s streets.
If there were culprits during the season’s first blizzard, Weissberg said it was private contractors, many of whom made new piles on the cleared streets.
The contractor on Front Street, who did not want to give his name, was agreeable, even apologetic. “I’m from Durham. I’m a country bumpkin,” he said. Where he comes from there’s plenty of room to push the snow from parking lots.
Not so in New Haven, and that’s why every parking lot “really needs a snow management” plan.
Asked how the streets in general looked to him as he drove a pick-up and small plow down Front, across Chapel, and back on Grand Avenue, Weissberg gave the public works crew a 7 or 8 out of 10.
Weissberg said his crews worked a full shift from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. pre-treating the roadways with magnesium chloride instead of salt.
As Weissberg drove along, a passing LCI vehicle paused, and its driver asked how the cleanup was going.
“It doesn’t look too bad,” Weissberg replied.
”Last night was brutal,” the driver said.
The blizzard was an “all hands on deck” situation, Weissberg said. In addition to the 30 or so DPW vehicles, Livable City Initiative (LCI) has four or five and the parks department has seven or eight. Parks is first to assist DPW if necessary and LCI crews if needed.
“But we have enough people,” he added.
Weissberg said the crews did well “considering the conditions, the 50-mile-an-hour winds, and the public [that] likes to blow stuff onto the street.”
At the worst points of the night, visibility was limited to 50 or 100 feet, according to emergency management’s Fontana. He said the city few car accidents, because most people heeded advice to stay off the roads. A falling tree on Forest Road outside the Hopkins School snarled traffic at 6:25 p.m. Sunday. It was one of many accidents that ripped out power lines, leaving United Illuminating customers in the dark.
Overnight, 6,440 UI customers lost power, according to a company spokesman. About 74 remained without power at 3:17 p.m. Monday. As the snow let up and the sun came out, city officials focused on clearing the roads.
“Some of our biggest offenders [in pushing snow onto the right of way] are educational institutions,” which would go unnamed, Weissberg said.
Right on cue, his phone rang for perhaps the fifth time. It was DPW’s Director Prokop. He reported to Weissberg that the mayor “was okay” with the conditions downtown.
Mayor John DeStefano is currently out of town; he has been keeping in touch by phone, according to City Hall spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga.
Hours after a downtown parking ban was lifted at 6 a.m., downtowners were returning to city streets Monday morning.
“We’ll be okay if the equipment doesn’t break down,” Prokop told Weissberg.
A moment later, Weissberg’s phone rang again.
“Welcome to my life,” he said.
This time it was an equipment problem. One of the plows had hit the seam between the movable decks of the Grand Avenue Bridge. It was a nick, perhaps more. Truck and plow were headed to 34 Middletwown Ave. for repairs.
“Roger,” Weissberg said.
As part of the preparation in early December, DPW scoped out all the roadways for manholes and other potential problems for plows, he said.
“When scraping steel blades go against asphalt at 15 miles an hour,” accidents do happen, Weissberg said. “The crews are cautious, well trained, but you can only do so much.”
He said the fleet could absorb the hit, and it would be repaired in an hour or so and return to the roads.
“Roger,” said Weissberg through his phone.
At Chapel near East Street, he encountered another huge pile in front of an empty parking lot. Here the culprit was inhuman: The wind had blown the piles from the 200 foot lot through the fence, where it had been appropriately piled, into four-foot high drifts.
Weissberg aimed perhaps a quarter of the length of his plow blade toward the drift and prepared to feather or clear part of it. A man with a dog was walking ahead and didn’t notice. Weissberg waited. The man looked up from his dog, and with thanks crossed the street.
Returning toward the DPW headquarters on Grand Avenue near Maltby, Weissberg spotted more culprits or as he put it “classic examples.”
He rolled down his window, and called out to the snow-blowers, “That way only,” meaning not towards the street,” The offending blowers understood and re-directed.
“That’s another big problem. Snow blowers and moving snow off cars, and it looks like we didn’t come through, and we did, three times!”
At the little shopping plaza at East Pearl and Grand he noticed with satisfaction that the clearers had done a good job, pushing the snow to the sides of the lot and not out onto the avenue.
On Front Street, as he headed back to the DPW garage Weissberg passed Damian Dalrymple, who had thrown a blue parka over his pajamas. He was clearing his driveway on Front Street by Lewis Park, the old fashioned way, with a shovel.
Was he pleased with how the city had been snow-cleared? “I’m pleased with my street,” he answered.
Then Weissberg drove on back to the garage, where he said he would handle problems and shift changes from the office.
If a plow misses your street, call DPW at (203) 946‑7700. The city’s snowline (203 – 946-SNOW) will be updated with information about municipal closures.
Melissa Bailey contributed reporting.
All night plow trucks came up Highview and Mountaintop lane . Come morning when people are heading out and its a total mess ,not a plow in sight from 5am all day and three phone calls later. What gives? are we the forgotton few?