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Mayor Jon Mitchell said that the city has reached “an inflection point” Friday, where most roadways have been made passable and freed of obstructions, four days after the city’s biggest-ever blizzard. Now the attention of city workers and a cadre of private contractors will be “excavation” — removing loads of snow from curbs and piles to continue freeing up sidewalks, bus stops, and storefronts.
The parking ban remains in effect on Friday and will be reassessed by Saturday morning. Power has been restored to effectively all homes in New Bedford.
Schools will reopen Monday, the city said in a Friday afternoon statement. Buttonwood Park Zoo will reopen Sunday.
SRTA bus service will restart Saturday, though the agency says there will be delays in service.
Trash collection will resume Monday. If residents’ trash barrels are full, they should “contain food waste in heavy-duty bags if possible,” the city said.
“New Bedford is extremely effective at snow removal. It may not seem that way when you look out your window… but New Bedford has approximately 300 miles of roadway in a very densely populated city,” Mitchell said at a Friday morning press conference. “Our effectiveness isn’t because of our resources, it’s because we have a whole lot of people who work together thoughtfully and effectively.”
Mitchell thanked leaders of many city agencies, including Commissioner Jamie Ponte of the Department of Public Infrastructure (DPI), for round-the-clock work; he thanked area nonprofits, including Steppingstones and PAACA, who “saved lives” by getting people off the streets and into warming shelters; he acknowledged the administration of Gov. Maura Healey, whom Mitchell said provided abundant resources; and he even thanked Domino’s pizza, which provided free pizza to city employees.
“To me it’s a surge of pride that I get to be mayor of a city with so many generous people,” Mitchell said. “That’s when you get right down to it — that’s why we have a great city.”
The work to make some streets passable is ongoing, and City Councilors Ryan Pereira, Brian Gomes, and Shawn Oliver received recognition for helping coordinate information and prioritize projects from their residents.
Before the parking ban can be lifted, many plowed streets need to be “widened,” Mitchell said. And before school resumes on Monday, there’s work to make sure that buses can navigate all the narrow city streets safely, including seeing kids crossing the street. Mitchell called the current parking ban “the longest… we’ve ever dealt with [and] the longest I can remember.”
Crews are moving snow to sites such as the former Aerovox facility in the North End and the former Cannon Street Power Station. They’re using heavy equipment provided by several contractors, as well as two blowers and 12 dump trucks from the Connecticut Department of Transportation.
For people looking to continue helping the recovery effort, Mitchell said people can ensure storm drains are clear so that melted snow can run off. And he reminded folks that shoveling snow into the street does not help.
Lastly, Mitchell said the city went to great lengths and to great expense to clear the city this quickly, but that the total cost of the snow removal is not yet known.
Email Colin Hogan at chogan@newbedfordlight.org
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I have lived in my home on a major street for 70 years and have been through many snowstorms, but there is no doubt that this storm was different, and while it’s taking longer to get the clean up finished, it is very important that we thank all the men and women that are out there working so hard, this New Bedford resident is very grateful, thanks to everyone.
Agree!
New Bedford needs a temporary city worker program like the one in NYC that hired over 1000 people to shovel sidewalks and crosswalks in a cleanup blitz. This would inject cash into the local economy. Mamdani’s use of the program was ingenious and should be copied.
The city does not need shovelers.
It needs machines with operators.
The city has hired in as many as one hundered.
See the names on the machines.
$30 and hour shovelers don’t move much snow.
They need lots of supervision.
Think it through.
Machines can’t tackle sidewalks and crosswalks in the way shovelers can. If the city hired a hundred machines then why aren’t the sidewalks and crosswalks done already? The nyc shovelers moved a lot of snow, the program was a resounding success. Supervision isn’t a problem, the nyc crews had that too. I’m not sure why you’re saying negative things that have already been shown to be incorrect. New Bedford does need a temporary city worker program for jobs like blizzard cleanup. Nyc has shown that it can be done and done well.
You’re going to learn responding to Albert Hess is not worth the effort, he’ll soon come back with, who, what, where and when. He apparently makes comments just to cause a backlash. We all can have an opinion and suggestion, just know going back and forth with him is just a waste of time.
A lot of things Mamdani has done should be shared with others states. Refreshing!
The Zoo reopens on Sunday… If I found out that the City had been doing snow removal from the Zoo before they had done a decent job at clearing my street, you’d never hear the end of it. This Mayor, his press people and his priorities suck.
Ty bill Simpson for saying that!! Agreed 👍
I have to say I saw more plows down my street this year, however, because they didn’t excavate during the LAST two storms – the pile from the curb to the street made it impassable and impossible to park. They did excavate on Friday – and dumped everything on the CLEANED sidewalks……oh well….at least they did it.
City streets are mostly “passable”?? Is this actually the word that mayor Mitchell is using?? Wow. That really says it all. Politician talk. Passable. Incredible
Deneigement on 7th Street
Friday night, my wife, our daughter, and I were treated from our house to an outstanding public performance that might be called a poetic ballet. Snow clearing or deneigement.
The performers in this ballet were the vehicles and their drivers attacking the snow that had accumulated on South 7th and its cross streets.
First came the enormous loader vehicles carving, pushing, piling, and loading the heavy once white stuff. These unrelenting brontosauran diggers easily maneuvered past each other and any cars, at times in unison often assisting each other while assembling strategically located mountains of snow for removal by large trucks. Smaller tracked performers deftly maneuvered in between to get into the smaller places. Large trucks arrived, were loaded, and spirited the loads away.
The performance began in the mid-afternoon at Union Street, then slowly but surely proceeded South toward our house cross street by cross street. Push, push, push, pile, load. A definite rhythm tuned by experience and tempered by the need to get it done. Then, on to the next. What choreography!
The final act of this ballet enjoyed from the front row center seats our house at the end of 7th provides was later at night when the headlights of these giants added an other-worldly quality to this mechanized ballet going on right in front of us. Thrilling!
The skill and care that the drivers exhibited on this stage witnessed close-up was nothing short of amazing. Applause and loud approval from the audience.
In spite of the inconvenience before they arrived, this evening was worth the wait.
Thank you, Mayor Mitchell and the Team at NB DPI.
Paul, Ingrid, and Tess Pawlowski
I agree to everything except you thanking mayor Mitchell. He and his team should have organized things much better than they did. As for the monstrous machinery, we too were in awe. It was like watching Canada clear there streets. They know how to get the job done. Thank you to each and every operator of machinery, you guys/gals rock!