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Plainville officials say "50-year" storm stretched crews, leaving roughly $100,000 cleanup bill
Summary
Plainville officials described a massive late-February storm that overwhelmed crews and contractors, forced emergency-access priorities, and will consume certified free cash to cover an estimated five-figure cleanup cost.
A late-February "50-year" storm left Plainville crews and contractors racing to keep roads and emergency routes open, officials said, and the town expects the cleanup to run into the five figures.
"My John Deere of almost 15 years finally gave out on me the day before the snow started," said Brian Kelly, chair of the Plainville Select Board, describing the personal impact of the accumulation and the scale of local drifts. Town Administrator Brian Noble said the storm's intensity surprised some crews and required full mobilization of CDL-qualified drivers and contractors.
Noble described the town's standard approach to major storms: start with a skeleton crew to pre-treat roads with salt (and brine only when temperatures allow), then move to full staffing and bring in contractors. He said the town no longer uses sand because it clogs drainage and becomes a hazardous disposal cost.
Officials said they prioritized main access roads for emergency vehicles and at times used a fire engine equipped with a plow to escort ambulances when neighborhood access was obstructed. Kelly and Noble also reported late-night hauling operations to remove downtown piles that had made parking and sightlines unsafe.
Noble estimated the storm would be "a $100,000 storm" overall and said the town began the event with roughly $6,000 remaining in a pre-funded $300,000 snow-and-ice account. "It will be paid out of free cash that's been certified," he said, a decision that reduces funds available for other capital needs but does not immediately change the operating levy.
Officials flagged equipment and staffing shortages as lessons from the event: more employees with commercial-driver licenses and an additional plow fleet would make responses faster and more flexible. They discussed a plan to buy a multipurpose Bobcat with a blower attachment on the capital budget rather than a single-purpose $190,000 sidewalk plow.
The town also said heavy snow piles briefly interfered with vehicle-detection sensors at the intersection of Routes 106 and 152, disrupting traffic-signal cycles until crews cleared the obstruction.
The program ended with officials saying downtown and residential roads had been returned to two-lane travel within a couple of days, and that the town would revisit sidewalk-clearing strategies and capital purchases in upcoming meetings.
