(UPDATED 10:32 a.m.) Town Focused On Widening Efforts

UPDATED 10:32 a.m.
The Parks and Recreation Department has cancelled all activities for tonight, according to director David Lapreay. Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback also released the following:

• Widening ops began today at 8 a.m.
• The remaining 20 percent of the main arteries will be completed today.
• We started in the largest subdivisions today to get the most progress in the shortest time.
• Crews have been instructed to move all refuse containers as they proceed to lessen resident inconvenience.
• Crews have been instructed to provide two – way traffic in these areas and to achieve this by making one pass in each direction so that multiple trips can be eliminated thereby lessening resident inconvenience and workload.
• Key catch basins in these areas will be located and exposed in the near future to allow for rainfall.
• Parking lot restoration is in the planning stages for later this week or weekend. This may be affected by forecasted adverse weather.

ORIGINAL STORY
It seems Mother Nature is not quite finished with winter just yet and time will become of the essence as Southington officials look to widen and clear all roads of snow from Friday's blizzard before more potentially falls later in the week.

The National Weather Service is predicting a 60 percent chance of snow Wednesday into Thursday, but it won’t be another blizzard. Still, the threat of any snow - even a couple inches - could cause problems for the town if snow removal from the previous storm is not yet complete.

Despite freezing rains slowing efforts on Monday morning, Southington Town Manager Garry Brumback said the town has been able to make good headway and finished widening of the town’s main roads before calling it quits Monday night.

“After spending the last 72 hours cutting emergency access lanes through every road and subdivision in town, town crews have transitioned to widening all routes for traffic safety,” he said. “We have completed most of the main roads and are now working on secondary roads and subdivisions.”

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But efforts may not come without some frustration to Southington residents, Brumback warned. In some areas, road widening will involve relocating five to eight feet of snow. It’s time consuming and will require patience from homeowners, he said.

Brumback released the following on Monday evening:

The purpose of this update is to inform the public that we have reached the next challenging step in the cleanup process after (the Feb. 8 blizzard.)

In many cases, mailboxes and storm drains remain inaccessible, and it is still difficult in some places for school buses to pass by big cars and trucks. Our initial push for emergency access necessarily left as much as 5-8 feet of unplowed snow on some roadways. The widening process now requires us to push that snow off to the side.

We apologize for the inconvenience, but you should be prepared for two things as we continue:

1. Your driveway will probably get snowed in again as crews continue plowing 

2. Because of the wetness of the snow, it will probably be more difficult to clear than it was the first time.

Town staff will do their very best to limit your inconvenience; however, we will not be able to eliminate it. We do not have the option of pushing back the snow and clearing private driveways.  This would take a level of manpower we do not have and add weeks to the recovery process.

It will, therefore, remain the responsibility of individual homeowners to clear their own driveways, and please keep in mind that it may take multiple passes by town plows to widen all roads.

Reminder*** The requirement to clear sidewalks remains suspended until further notice.

Thank you for your continued patience and support.

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