First snow sets record, tests town's response

The first snowfall of the season was a record breaker.

While it wasn’t a “snowmageddon” or “snowpocalypse” type of storm, a 112-year-old record fell along with six inches of snow. While the official snowfall tally at T.F. Green Airport may have been exceeded near the higher elevations in town, the old record of one and a half inches on November 15 is now history.

Once the snow started falling at a fast pace just after 6 p.m., roads across Rhode Island became quickly covered and, in some cases, dangerous. Colonel Ann C. Assumpico, Superintendent of the Rhode Island State Police and Director of the Department of Public Safety, reported that snow-covered roads throughout the state resulted in 35 crashes between 6 and 9 p.m. While no serious injuries were reported, multiple vehicles were involved in many of these crashes.

Arnie Vecchione, Johnston’s Director of Public Works, said the town was ready for the first storm of the year, but he was surprised by the amount of snow that fell and how quickly it piled up.

“We have our own weather service – Precision weather – and I keep a slip throughout the year of when they were right and when they were wrong. I want to say 80 percent of the time they are right on target, so I don’t even look at the news on television anymore,” said Vecchione. “The gentlemen from the weather service called me at about 5 o’clock that evening, and he said he had good news and bad news. He said the bad news was that we were going to get about three inches of snow, but the good news was that by about 1 a.m., it will rain and will wash it all away. Well, that wasn’t even close to the truth.”

Vecchione said that he had a crew servicing each district of the town but that some of the contracted vendors weren’t yet ready for the snow season to start. Five vendors were available, and all told there were approximately 25 crewmembers plowing, salting and sanding the town’s roads.

“The last thing we did the next morning was to use straight salt on all the hills, such as Anglewood, Allendale, all the hills that I thought would be a problem for the school buses,” said Vecchione. “But we really didn’t have that much of a problem with all we had to endure during that storm. We got through it, and we got the roads clean and as good as any community in the state.”

While the cleanup was ongoing, Vecchione said he was in contact with the school district’s Director of Facilities, David Cournoyer, who told him there would be an hour delay to the start of school, mirroring the action taken by surrounding communities.

“That helps us so much because we can clean up and make sure that the buses can get by,” said Vecchione.

All told, Vecchione said his department received about 15 calls from concerned residents about street conditions, which he said was “really good” for a town this size. He’s still trying to calculate the cost of the storm, tallying the amount of salt and sand used along with hours worked. Overall, the budget total for snow removal is $125,000, which includes materials and vendor costs. There are 178 miles of town-owned roads in Johnston, which needs to be plowed in both directions.

Vecchione added that he was satisfied with the conditions of state roads in town, having faced rough travels on Route 295 during the storm.

“You can’t blame the state because if they were going by what they were told, then they did the same thing we did. They called their drivers and vendors in at a certain time,” he said. “But the forecasts were way off base.”

Is Vecchione concerned that this snowstorm could mean a harsh winter ahead?

“I am. You don’t want to get our crews tired too soon, and it’s not good that they’re working 16 hours on the clock this early in the year,” he said. He added that he would treat roads as needed during the predicted Thanksgiving weekend cold snap.

The last touches are also being put on road construction, which is now winding down. Bishop Hill Road has been repaved, and a section of Brown Avenue should be completed, weather depending, by the end of next week.

According to Mayor Joseph Polisena, he has assurances that Greenville Avenue – a state road –will be repaved from Salina to about 150 feet to George Waterman this year. That project is the responsibility of National Grid and Providence Water. A gas regulator station needs to be installed in that 150-foot section of road, and once that’s completed the short stretch will be repaved next spring, along with affected side streets.

The mayor was quick to compliment the DPW for their work during last week’s snow.

“I think our guys did a very good job like they normally do. I’m very, very proud of the work they do,” said Polisena. “But these weathermen, they just can’t get it right.”

The mayor also wanted to remind residents that the initial pass down the middle of the street by a plow is to open the road for rescue vehicles if needed.

“I want the people to know that if they haven’t come back to widen it up, say, eight to ten hours later because we’ve had a big storm, let us know and we will obviously take care of it,” said Polisena.