Published December 13, 2019

This is another in a series of “Around Town” articles.

MELROSE — Last week’s snowstorm was the first of the season and the first wintry challenge for Melrose Mayor Paul Brodeur’s new administration. The city’s response was virtually flawless. So, kudos to our new mayor and the Department of Public Works (DPW) for a job well done.

“Although this most recent storm may have turned out to be minor, whenever there’s weather, it’s important that we do everything we can to get it right,” said Mayor Brodeur. “And our DPW certainly came through.”

According to Richard Stinson, interim Melrose DPW Director, his department covered over 200 miles of road with 150 pieces equipment clearing the way.

City Councilor Mike Zwirko agreed.

HOMEOWNERS up and down Lincoln Street with uncollected trash were unaware pick-up had been delayed by one day. (Nancy Tine Photo)

“The city did a very good job of pre-treating the roadways. And that’s really important because forecasts are becoming tougher and tougher to capture between what’s realized on the ground and what the forecast actually was. We really had two storms back-to-back. On Monday, it was wet heavy snow and Tuesday, we had a light volume of snow, about 6 – 7 inches.”

“And because of coordinated pre-treatment of the roads, those things were passable, so it just became an issue of clearing. All-in-all, the city did a great job of getting in front of the storm.”

One issue Melrosians should be aware of is storm-related trash pick-up and how to know when your street’s pick-up will be delayed. 

Around Town hangs its hat on Lincoln Street. The night before our scheduled Thursday trash pick-up our neighbor called and said, “trash delayed one day.”

This news flash came from the Fiebig family. Harold Fiebig, a nonagenarian and the patriarch of the family, is known as the mayor of Linclon Street and has lived here for over 50 years. When he notifies us about a trash pick-up delay, you can take that to the bank.

Harold is sort of a Yoda-type crossed with a young Jedi Master. When he suggests bringing in your plants with a “storm-is-a-brewin’” tone, you accept it as fact. Or when it’s time to plant your tomatoes. Harold knows all.

Therefore, when his daughter Nancy called and said trash delayed one day we didn’t question the source.

And naturally, we passed on the news to our neighbor Doc. Doc gets up early and heads into Boston where he practices his craft at one of our first-class hospitals. The last thing Doc needed was to unnecessarily haul out his refuse.

Doc was appreciative but hedged his bet when he saw just about every house on Lincoln Street with trash out. A text to me at 6:30 a.m. asking if I was sure of “no trash” went unanswered, so Doc lugged everything out to the curb.

Guess what? No pick-up.

LOOK FOR this selection under the “Subscribing to Alerts” option on the city website.

“I succumbed to crows mentality. Saw the group and fear set in. Not sure what that says about my personality…, “ mused Doc.

Doc was just one of many who would like to know the secret to being informed about such things as trash pick-up delays.

Turns out Nancy Fiebig simply went on the City of Melrose website where an announcement was posted.

Over 40 houses on Lincoln Street were unaware of the trash delay. So, Around Town inquired of the DPW on how one could get in the loop on these announcements.

We spoke with Melissa Aveni at the City Yard and she couldn’t have been more helpful. She explained that in addition to posting announcements on the city website and through the mayor’s blog, residents here are offered the option of signing up for the Melrose Emergency Notification System through City of Melrose Everbridge Notifications and Alerts. 

By selecting the “Subscribing to Alerts” option on the city site, you can sign up for and receive important notifications and announcements, such as trash pick-up delays or road closures.

Around Town followed Ms. Aveni’s advice and did sign up. It was easy. Except for the part where you needed to select your time zone. After several passes and almost choosing American Samoa, we were successful in selecting Eastern Time.

So, there you have it. Information from City Hall, easy to access.

The final word on the City’s response to the storm itself comes from Councilman Zwirko.

“Given the recent transition to a new mayor, Melrose government is running extremely well. The mayor rode along with the DPW to see how things were going. All in all, excellent job.”