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Council grills DPW on snow response as director defends decisions and outlines fixes
Summary
Interim DPW Director Anthony Crispino told the Committee on Public Works and Operations that the January storm created unusual 'snowcrete' conditions, described pre-storm brining and contractor expansion from three to five vendors, and acknowledged communication and service gaps while pledging after-action reviews and operational changes.
Chair Brianne Nadeau opened a March 4 oversight hearing focused on the Department of Public Works's response to a severe January snowstorm and directed questions at Interim Director Anthony Crispino and his leadership team.
Crispino framed the event as atypical, saying the storm combined heavy snowfall, a surface layer of ice and prolonged sub-freezing temperatures that turned accumulations into a compacted, pavement-bonded "snowcrete." "When DPW classifies a road as passable, it means the street has been plowed and treated to, allow travel with caution," he told the committee, adding that "passable" is not equivalent to bare pavement. He said DPW pretreated routes with two days of brine, staged rock salt and expanded contracted capacity "from 3 vendors to 5" with surge authority to scale further as needed.
Council members pressed Crispino on operational choices the public found confusing during the storm, including when and why DPW cleared some alleys and not others. Crispino said alleys remain the legal responsibility of residents but that DPW deployed Bobcats "for the first time" to cut access lanes for collection trucks on routes: "60% of our collection routes in the district occur in alleyways," he said, explaining crews focused on clearing the width necessary for collection machines rather than full building-to-curb removal. He acknowledged service interruptions and communication failures and said internal after-action reviews are already underway; he also expects a citywide hotwash by the emergency management office that would produce a report for improvement recommendations.
The director defended many operational decisions as driven by safety and the limits of materials: rock salt, he testified, becomes ineffective once temperatures drop below about 20 degrees, and light municipal plows lack the weight and horsepower to break packed ice. He outlined both short-term fixes (escalation crews, contractor support, and targeted salt giveaways at six recreation sites) and longer-term changes including updated zone maps, improved QA tools (beyond the spreadsheet used during the event) and further investments in equipment and contractor management.
Council members asked for near-term deliverables, including a map of DPW's 14 snow zones and a timeline and cost reconciliation of contracted plow work and invoices; Crispino agreed to follow up with that material. The committee reserved additional questions on staffing, training, and technology that arose during the exchange.
