Sometimes police sirens are needed to prompt drivers to move parked vehicles so plows can plow. But generally residents abide by parking bans.
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HOLYOKE -- Three areas that challenge city snow plowers are Tokeneke Road, the small streets behind South Street Plaza and the tree-named streets off Appleton Street.
"They can never get the parking ban straight. It's always a challenge up here," said William D. Fuqua, general superintendent of the Department of Public Works (DPW).
He was talking Monday (Feb. 2) about Tokeneke Road, the area off Whiting Farms Road, during a drive through Winter Storm Linus about how the DPW's crew of city and privately hired plowers face complications in certain areas.
The point of a parking ban is to prohibit on-street parking on one side of the street for a period to allow for snow removal, with odd- and even-numbered sides of parking prohibition alternating to ensure thorough clearing.
But special signs have had to be installed on Tokeneke Road.
"It's just the way it was laid out, the way the particular units were situated. It was done with even- and odd-numbered apartments on both sides of the street," he said, turning his DPW SUV onto Farnum Drive.
Signs like this are posted on Tokeneke Road in Holyoke to help in getting winter parking bans followed.(MIKE PLAISANCE / THE REPUBLICAN)
"We usually just send a supervisor and a plow operator up there to try to come up with a plan to get the cars out of the way," he said.
Sometimes police must be asked for help in the form of sounding sirens on cruisers moving through the streets to alert folks about the parking ban, he said.
Generally on Monday, though, Holyokers were abiding by the parking ban and that helps the DPW, he said.
"Parking ban's looking good," Fuqua said.
Behind South Street Plaza, narrow streets like Davis and Chapin shrink further with the added density of snow packed in with parked vehicles.
"It just gets really tough in there," Fuqua said.
Often the snow-clearing in this area means the rumbling in of a front-end loader to scoop out snowbanks and haul them away in dump trucks, he said.
On Chapin Street near Quirk Avenue, Fuqua had to stop and back up to allow an oncoming vehicle to get by.
"You see, there's a huge snowbank here," Fuqua said.
To the right, meanwhile, a guy in a pickup truck fitted with a plow was clearing snow from the street.
"He's being a good guy," Fuqua said.
The city has a few dozen private plowers for such large storms, but the guy in the pickup truck wasn't one of them. Fuqua can tell because the DPW ties 3 feet of yellow caution tape to the side mirror or antenna to identify the private plowers working for the city.
The "tree streets" -- Maple, Chestnut, Elm, Walnut, Pine -- that run perpendicular to Appleton Street also get attention from Fuqua as he drives the city to ensure clear paths for his plows. Many streets in this area also are narrow.
"These are challenges you have within the city layout. The roads weren't designed for the cars you have now," said Fuqua, meaning the size and volume of vehicles.
Plowers will get frustrated having to return to a street cleared hours earlier because snowy mounds obstruct passage after homeowners' snowblowing, shoveling and cleaning of vehicles results in snow being tossed in the street.
"So we'll just have to replow the street," said Fuqua, fully aware the frustration boomerangs back to homeowners irritated at passing plows suddenly reblocking their driveways.
Dumping snow in the street is illegal. Plow drivers are instructed not to get into confrontations with people. Drivers used to be supplied with paper notices they would hand out to such home snow-blowers and shovelers, he said.
"But they would just crumple them up and threw them back at us. So we just call the police if it's a (flagrant) problem. But that's life in the city. There's only so much place to put the snow," Fuqua said.
The plan when a storm hits is to keep snow cleared first from the main roads, such as Main Street, Beech Street, Dwight Street, Hampden Street, Northampton Street (Route 5), Homestead Avenue, Cherry Street and Canal Street.
Then plowers scoop out neighborhood streets while keeping a steady eye still on the main arteries, Fuqua said.
The Police and Fire stations also will get driveways and parking areas cleared, he said, along with municipal facilities like City Hall and the Senior Center on Pine Street.
On Cabot Street, a big round city truck drove by. It was equipped with a 500-gallon tank filled with salt brine. Crews spray the substance onto streets before a storm starts. Another passage-ensuring weapon, he said.
"It'll dry there and when the storm stops, it'll stop the snow from binding to the pavement," Fuqua said.
