Yarmouth Looking to Fix Winter Storm Response

464402067YARMOUTH – The town of Yarmouth is looking at ways to improve their response to clearing roadways during snowstorms this coming winter.

The town’s Highway Superintendent Richard Kelley met with selectmen Tuesday night and proposed ways to avoid recurring problems.

The town is seeking to achieve a 15 to 30 percent reduction in how long it takes to get the town plowed out.

Kelley’s solution includes adding one loader and several large trucks for main roads, with additional trucks to cover neighborhood plow routes.

Kelley said the superintendent and the operations supervisor should be freed up to respond to resident concerns and office staff should be cross-trained for dispatch duties. He also wants to have the option to have extra plows under contract in case of larger storms.

Kelley said there is many benefits to having the roads plowed quickly.

“If we can get out there and get these roads plowed and we can keep that snow off and we keep that ice, the rutting and the hard pack, we’re also going to save in material, and material is very expensive,” said Kelley.

The highway superintendent also proposed using “request tracker” and “notify me” for the highway’s web page and working with the Yarmouth Police Department to post updates and information to their web and Facebook pages.

Kelley said people going to medical appointments off-Cape in the winter need help.

“Sometimes we’ll have snow storms on the Cape and they don’t have it over the bridge, and a lot of people have medical appointments off Cape and they’re still expected to be there Bat they can’t get out of here, and that’s one of the things we’d really like to improve upon, making sure that these people can make them,” said Kelley.

Selectmen said they’ll continue to assess the proposal with more discussion in the future.

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