Snowstorm was brutal but Public Works managed without overtime

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The New Year brought the tri-state region its first snowstorm on Thursday, Jan. 4, and according to the director of Bloomfield Public Works and Parks, Anthony Nesto, his department did “relatively well.” Bloomfield traffic and pedestrians were kept moving, but with temperatures constantly in the teens or below, there were some mechanical problems for DPW vehicles.

Activity began early Thursday morning, the day of the storm. Nesto, in a telephone interview earlier this week, said he arrived at the public works yard on Grove Street at 3:30 a.m. A half-hour later, 10 workers reported in and salt spreading began at about 5:30 a.m. At 7:30 a.m., the rest of the DPW crew came in. The department had about 45 people working plus three mechanics who were kept busy.
“We had six pretty big breakdowns because of a combination of cold and use,” Nesto said.

For him, a big breakdown is anything that took a vehicle off the road for more than a half-hour. Three of the six breakdowns involved small trucks that spread salt. The augers that feed the salt to the spinners, which scatter the salt onto the street, stopped working because of the cold. But other than that, there were no more problems.

The snowstorm did not require any overtime for his crew. Despite the gusts of wind, no trees or limbs were reported down. And there were no injuries nor did anyone have to leave earlier than scheduled. Nesto said the snow measured 6.5 inches in three places of the DPW yard.

The responses the department was receiving on social media, he said, were 80 percent favorable, which told him that his department did very well.
One hundred and fifty tons of salt were used the day of the storm with another 50 tons used Friday and Saturday.

Nesto said the biggest problem from the storm was that it interfered with the garbage and recycling pickups, which were not waived.