The Select Board met Monday afternoon to declare an emergency that would allow the town to dump snow into Marblehead Harbor at Riverhead Beach and State Street Landing. A major storm dropped more than a foot of snow across town Sunday and Monday.
“We see a threat to public health and safety, and that really is all the snow that we have moved has now been deposited on sidewalks and built up in corners,” said Marblehead DPW Supervisor Amy McHugh. “There’s difficulty seeing … our streets are very small, so we now have narrower streets to get our emergency equipment through, and we have no place to actually put our snow the next round that comes through. We’ll just keep piling it higher and higher. So we would like to remove it. We’ve done it in the past.”
The Select Board approved the plan, which McHugh said would happen overnights, starting Tuesday at midnight and running through Friday morning.
McHugh explained that the environmental impact will be minimal.
“The snow has not been down for a long period of time, so it hasn’t collected trash,” she said. “We pretreated way prior to the storm and haven’t treated during the (removal) process right now, so there’s no additional salt or de-icer in the snow.”
The town is alerting the state Department of Environmental Protection and will report on how much snow is ultimately dumped in the harbor.
Residents appeared to take the storm in stride, walking their dogs, shoveling, sledding and trekking out on foot to buy groceries. (See photos by the Current‘s Grey Collins below.)
Police Chief Dennis King said the town’s storm operations went smoothly, despite one cruiser being involved in a minor accident with no injuries reported. He thanked residents and visitors for complying with the parking ban.
“We had limited tickets issued and only three tows,” King said. “The officers did a great job getting people to move as well.”
King added, “It’s important to acknowledge all of the fire, police and dispatch personnel working the storm and the DPW, school and Transfer Station snow operation crews, as well as Marblehead Electric Light, are doing a great job in difficult conditions. We have a town snow team that includes many partners that work together to best respond to the unpredictable weather conditions and this was a significant storm that required a lot of coordination.”
The chief also issued a warning to residents.
“People need to stop putting the snow back into the streets, sidewalks and covering fire hydrants,” King said. “This makes maintaining the streets and sidewalks impossible. This is prohibited, and we will be monitoring to address violators.”
