DPW crews preparing for first snowfall of the season

WILBRAHAM, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - With the first potential snowfall in the forecast, many local DPWs are making sure they’re ready to go. However, they told us they’ve had trouble this year getting their hands on materials.

Your Western Mass News First Alert Weather team is predicting the first snowfall of the season to take place Tuesday. Although western Massachusetts residents may not be ready to pullout their winter coats, local crews are more than prepared. Western Mass News spoke with the Wilbraham DPW Director Tonya Capparello, who said they have employees on call for Tuesday.

“Our equipment has pretty much been ready for quite a while now, but we basically will watch our road temperatures. We work with dispatch and the police department. They let us know if there are areas of higher elevations that get slick,” Capparello said.

However, she told us this year has been harder than year’s past. They’ve had a hard time getting their hands on salt and sand.

“Normally, it can come in a day or so, but it could take a week or two weeks and that gets pretty scary,” Capparello added.

They’ve had to battle with high fuel costs.

“The fuel prices, we are just getting used to them. We do have a snow plowing budget that covers that material and any increase in snow cost and at the end of the year, if we find that we’re over it, we just have to go to the town,” Capparello explained.

However, she said she’s confident they have enough materials and employees to last them through the upcoming winter season. We found Interstate Towing also preparing for Tuesday as the first snowfall usually brings some accidents.

“Every year, the first snow fall or something like that, people just aren’t used to paying attention. The biggest thing is people need to attention while operating their vehicle,” said Steve Gonneville, general manager at Interstate Towing.

They are filling up their trucks and calling their employees to make sure they are ready to serve the community.

“We’re gearing up, getting ready to go. Any type of cold weather, any liquid, frozen, it’s definitely going to cause a mess out there,” Capparello explained.

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