Charlie Breitrose
Snow started early Tuesday and will get much heavier during the day.
The expected heavy snow storm has caused many closings, cancellations and postponements, plus the Department of Public Works has declared a snow emergency.
At 5 a.m., DPW Superintendent Gerry Mee declared a snow emergency for the town. This means vehicles must be off the public roads, or else may be towed. The snow emergency is in effect until further notice.
Residents may park in public parking lots, including the municipal lot behind CVS, the Police Station, the Library and the Watertown Public Schools.
Monday night, School Committee member Eileen Hsu-Balzer reminded people that people must remove their cars from school lots by 6 a.m. the day after a storm to allow for the lots to be plowed for teachers and staff. HOWEVER, there is an exception if there is a snow emergency because people cannot park on the street, said Town Council President Mark Sideris.
Closing/Postponements
Watertown Public Schools are closed Tuesday
Watertown Town Hall is closed
Tuesday’s Town Council meeting has been rescheduled to Thursday night. See the agenda here.
Watertown Free Public Library is closed
Watertown Senior Center is closed
Trash Pickup for Tuesday delayed a day, same for the rest of the week (Wednesday now Thursday, etc.)
Mosesian Center for the Arts is closed
Arsenal Mall is closed.
Target and Best Buy are open, but the rest of the Watertown Mall is closed.
Atrium School is closed
St. Stephen’s School is closed
St. James Armenian Church is closed
Tuesday night’s Minuteman Vocational High School Informational Meeting at Watertown Middle School has been postponed to March 21.
Wednesday night’s community meeting on the road project near Hosmer School has been postponed to April 5.
See how the MBTA is impacted here. They have put the Commuter Rail on a “Blue Service Level” – see more here.
It’s also a big payday for the Watertown snowplow scammers. It is now 3 hours after it stopped snowing, 2 hours since the roads have been down to bare pavement and The Fence Man is still driving around “plowing” the bare pavement. Watertown taxpayers should be outraged that the town budget is going up faster than inflation, and this sort of scam is still going on (The Fence Man has been doing this for over a decade).
Interesting question is how are contractors paid to plow. By storm, by hour, by number of inches.
Ahhhh, so you noticed that too? Yep, he circles around for hours on end long after the roads are clear. He might as well replace the plow blade with a squeegee for all the water hes pushing around.
Hourly.
“Recorded starting and finishing times by the Department of Public Works for each vehicle will agree with billing, the time to be computed to the nearest one quarter hour.”
http://www.ci.watertown.ma.us/DocumentCenter/View/21031