ATHOL – As of Wednesday, Athol’s public works crews were still at it, cleaning up from the multifaceted storm that struck the region last weekend.

At various times, crews had to deal with snow, freezing rain, heavy rain and high winds. Frigid temperatures turned slush into solid ice. Still, Public Works Director Dick Kilhart told the Athol Daily News Wednesday he was pleased with the way his department responded, adding the department was well prepared to face the storm.

“I know a lot of towns were having difficulty getting de-icing material,” said Kilhart, “but we belong to a consortium of 22 towns throughout central Mass. We get our salt from Leed Salt (in Shrewsbury). We ordered salt just the other day at one o’clock and they were delivering it by five o’clock or thereabouts.”

Kilhart said it wasn’t the ice itself that presented the greatest challenge, but the ever-changing nature of the storm.

“We had that first batch of snow from Saturday night into Sunday morning,” he said. “We five to six inches, depending on where you were. Then, of course, we plow that off and as soon as it’s plowed off it changes to sleet and freezing rain, then it accumulates, and then it turns to heavy rain. So then we’re scraping again Sunday afternoon into a good part of Sunday evening. And then re-treating the roads again. Then, Sunday night into Monday, depending on where you live in town – with our elevations we might have three inches downtown but six inches uptown. So that combination of going from one to the other, then back to the other, and back to the other was a challenge.”

He noted that some members of his crew may have put in up to 30 hours in overtime during the storm. Kilhart said the most anyone can work at a single stretch is 16 hours before taking a break and getting some sleep.

He said the DPW received a number of calls on Monday, when more people were home because of the President’s Day holiday.

“We had folks calling from different places or reaching out by email; they didn’t think that this road had been done or that road hadn’t been done,” he said. “It’s difficult to assure people that that road has probably been done three or four times already, but there was an icepack. Today and yesterday, there was some good melting going on. But our crews are even out today re-scraping roads, re-treating roads; we’re clearing them up.

“This one was a challenge for the guys and the crews over the last, well, since Saturday. A handful of the guys came in last night to clear some of the snow on Main Street for the businesses. We haven’t had to do that for the last couple of years because we haven’t had any snowbanks, but we had some pretty good snowbanks downtown after this weekend.”

Asked if it was difficult for his crews to get back into the swing of things after a couple of very mild winters, Kilhart said, “I’m not sure about the ‘muscle memory,’ but the one thing is we’ve had some turnover over the last couple of years. So, we had some new drivers that have started with us as we replaced retirees, and we’ve had a few folks go to other communities. So, that’s always part of it, too.

“I’m really proud of the way the guys responded. It’s a really, really hard job to do what they do. I just encourage the general public to be patient. If you have an issue with your particular street, reach out to the office and they’ll get the message to us. Not every road is down to black pavement on the first day, we admit that. But that’s part of what happens when you have an ice storm, freezing rain, and events like what happened this weekend, and snow on top of it. It was a long haul, but we’ve come out of it alright.”

Kilhart said the storm has depleted the department’s snow and ice account. He said he made a request to Town Manager Shaun Suhoski – which was subsequently approved – to proceed into deficit spending on that account. The FY25 budget for snow and ice was set at $280,000, according to Kilhart.

“Just with the next order of salt, to replace what he had for de-icing,” he said, “we’ll definitely be overspending, and we’ve still got the whole month of March and maybe the first week in April before we’re done here, if the way things are happening is any indication.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.