By BOB MARTIN
Eagle Times Staff
CLAREMONT, N.H. — When it comes to winter storms in New Hampshire, it is important for communities to be prepared and work collaboratively to ensure the safety of its residents.
While it isn’t a blizzard by any means, the city of Claremont has been in the midst of some sloppy conditions with snow followed by rain since Monday evening. Fire Chief Jim Chamberlain was happy to report that thanks to the cooperative effort of the city’s departments, there were no major incidents to report.
The only incident of note was a vehicle hitting a telephone pole on Monday night at about 5 p.m. at the intersection of Clay Hill and Roosevelt Ave, which caused power outages and a temporary road closure.
“No injuries to report but we had to wait for Eversource to come in and shut down part of the road until power lines were mitigated,” Chamberlain said.
Otherwise it was routine calls for the fire department, including a chimney fire on Belding Street at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday. Chamberlain said a passerby called to report flames coming out of the top of a chimney. The department responded with a “full complement,” and were able to extinguish the fire quickly. Chamberlain said the homeowner was advised to get the chimney inspected and cleaned before using it again. The fire was confined to the flue and the chimney, and there were no injuries.
Chamberlain said the school district having a two-hour delay helped keep traffic down on Tuesday morning when conditions were sloppy from snow, rain and slush that had developed.
“We didn’t have any accidents that we responded to this morning,” Chamberlain said on Tuesday. “We’re always ready to mitigate calls that come our way. The city of Claremont is a true collaborative effort with our emergency services, which include the DPW. They did a great job getting the roads cleared.”
Chamberlain said the work of the Department of Public Works was vital in ensuring the safety of drivers and allowing for his department to respond to calls.
“If the DPW isn’t out working to clear the roads, we are unable to travel them and get to the calls,” Chamberlain said. The collaboration certainly worked effectively with the small storm that we got.”
Department of Public Works Director Alex Gleeson said the team was out all night on Monday, and they were able to pre-treat the roads to get ahead of the inclement weather. The snow and rain did stop on Tuesday, but more precipitation is expected today. Gleeson said DPW was working throughout the day to prepare, and he was confident that all would continue to run smoothly.
“We try to space out work and rest accordingly, and do our best to manage the storm,” Gleeson said. “We might have a couple people stay, some go back, but it really depends on the storm and what is going on. We just try to clear everything before rush hour in the morning.”
Gleeson explained that the DPW sands on dirt roads and salts on asphalt, which he said is standard protocol as it saves money in the spring so they won’t have to send street sweepers out as salt dissolves and doesn’t require the cleanup of sand.
Gleeson said, “everything is going according to plan,” and noted that the main focus was tending to the main roads and then the mountain roads where there is freezing due to higher altitude. Workers also make sure the sidewalks are all cleared so students can get to school safely.
Winter hasn’t even officially hit yet, but the city has already experienced several storms. Gleeson said the most important thing for his department is to plan accordingly, be ready for anything, and efficiently use their resources.
“We’ve got some technology in place to help minimize salt usage,” Gleeson said. “It has proven to be very efficient. We have a prescription spreading. With a lot of our trucks, we have technology to spread based on the temperature, so we aren’t just wasting material. We do our best to mitigate loss of material.”
The neighboring community of Newport also did well with the storm, and despite the sloppy conditions it had been quiet. Fire Chief Steve Yanuzzi saying his crew is “always ready for anything.”
“We’ve done alright and didn’t even turn a wheel yesterday during the storm, which is good,” Yanuzzi said. “People seemed to stay off the roads. The way the storm came in wasn’t one big heavy dumping, and as it warmed up the roads became clear.”
The National Weather Service is forecasting warmer conditions with a high near 52 degrees, but plenty of rain with new precipitation of between three quarters and an inch possible on Wednesday.
