BLOOMFIELD, NJ — Over at the Department of Public Works and Parks, they’re just itching for some REAL snow.
“Last year, we had only one major storm,” the department director, Anthony Nesto, said earlier this week in a telephone interview. “Right now, my guys want it to snow. Their overtime is down.”
It was snowing a wee bit in Bloomfield Town as he spoke.
“Right now, there’s snow on the ground,” Nesto said. “There’s snow going north but not to the south.”
Sometimes, he said, when it actually does snow, there can be 5 inches on Garrabrant Avenue, to the north, and 3 ½ inches on Ampere Parkway, to the south. Montclair, he said, was already salting its roads against the latest snowfall.
“At 1 inch, we salt,” he said. “At 3 inches, we plow.”
The forecast itself was grim for anyone wanting REAL snow: just a 50/50 chance an inch of it would fall.
But there was a silver lining to the snowless sky.
“Because of the weather, we’ve been able to send out the tree trucks,” Nesto said. “There are some winters when you can’t do this. That’s trimming, pruning and removals. That would usually be done in the spring. And now we’re two-thirds done with the winter.”
Without snow covering the roads, a lot of blacktop was showing, too.
“We’ve been doing potholes every day,” Nesto said. “There’s no hot patch. The asphalt makers stopped making it. That’s made in the spring for major road work.”
The town has been using cold patch to fill its cracks. Nesto has it warmed up in the asphalt machine to make it stickier. The town also uses a substance called “tack coat.” The pothole is coated with it before tossing in the cold patch. It makes the cold patch adhere better. But oddly, Nesto said, cold patch costs more than hot patch because of the chemicals required to make it.
“We’ve come across some major potholes,” he said. “The county is doing its job and we are assisting them.”
He said this road work is being done along Broad and Franklin streets, and West Passaic Avenue.
And without the snow-covered streets, the trucks that would be used are in better shape for lack of wear and tear. Nesto said that’s another plus. And he’s used the part-time help less because of no snow.
But when it does snow, Nesto said removing it for the 48,000 citizens of Bloomfield is the most stressful time for his department.
“The best snow is one that happens during the day, Monday to Friday,” he said. “Everyone is on the clock. The worst is Saturday. Everyone has to come in.”
Nesto’s forecast for the next two weeks?
“It doesn’t look too bad,” he said.
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