Salem Observer : Salem, roads

Salem DPW employees train on road grader to care for last gravel roads

Salem Editor — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 19:04:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

As gravel roads fade into the past, public works employees spend less time behind the wheel of a road grader, but a training program run by the University of New Hampshire is keeping them up to speed.

Six of the department’s heavy equipment operators spent much of two days earlier this month learning the mechanics behind the machine – a long, narrow vehicle with a single blade slung underneath to grade the road – and taking turns going through the motions of reconstructing a gravel roadway off of North Main Street.

“We’re down to about 27 miles left of gravel road that we still have to use this technique for,” said David Wholley, operations manager at the DPW. “Typically, modern graders are run quite a bit with GPS units and completely automated. (What we have) is more than antiquated and it’s important to learn the oldschool way of doing it.”

Unlike other types of equipment commonly found in the back lot of the public works facility in town, the grader is not a vehicle that an employee could get the feel for by playing with it during lunch or after work, according to DPW Director Rick Russell.

“A lot of these guys learn how to use the machines in their spare time. (A grader) is a specialized piece of equipment in the construction industry as a whole. The guys can’t get a whole lot of experience under their belts that way,” he said.

“They want to learn and they pay attention. (This training course) teaches them safety first, so they get comfortable with the equipment. They just need time to go out and work the machine.”

Russell, who started out in the construction business, recalled getting taught the ins and outs on a road grader left over from the World War II while he watched his employees take the department’s grader – purchased sometime in the late 1980s – up and down Lemay Road yesterday.

“I remember learning on the old, mechanical one from 1943,” he said with a laugh. “We had strategic places to plant the dynamite if the enemy overran us. It was World War II vintage, old army surplus.”

With the road grader pulling double-duty as an integral part of the department’s snow plan – clearing Route 28 during winter storms – Wholley said it was critical that they make sure more than one individual was comfortable operating the equipment. When the Technology Transfer Center at UNH began offering training courses on the grader two years ago, Wholley was unsuccessful in getting his employees into the courses.

Wholley began talking to training program manager Kathryn Myers and they were able to schedule a session in Salem using the town’s equipment, saving the department money on travel. According to Wholley, each DPW employee enrolled in the class cost the department $120.

“They’re a whole lot more comfortable after just one afternoon,” said George “Butch” Leech, who led the training course. “They’re not so intimidated when they get in the machine.”

Following behind the grader clearing vegetation and rocks off of the road surface, Joe Feoli and Jonathan Graichen said the program allowed them more time to practice on the machine. In an average year, the department has a three- to four-week window in the fall and spring to redo the remaining gravel roads in town, according to Graichen and Feoli.

“Throughout the years, the road program has taken care of (the gravel roads),” he said. “Eventually that grinder will be a thing of the past.”

Salem Department of Public Works nixes road salt additive

Salem Editor — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 20:24:00 GMT

BY DERRICK PERKINS

Despite saving the town $120 per truckload, Public Works officials have stopped using a liquid treatment for road salt after 2,500 tons of the stored treated salt caked up into a solid mass.

Public Works Director Rick Russell said the department had to use backhoes to break up the salt – treated with a product called Ice B Gone – before it could be loaded onto trucks and spread around town on New Year’s Day.

“We were really disappointed with it. We had no problem with the performance, the stuff was working it good,” Russell said. “It didn’t jeopardize our operation, but I’m not saying it couldn’t get to that point. That’s why we stopped using it.”

Salem has been using Ice B Gone for about a year. Salt trucks spreading the treated material use about a third less salt than when using regular road salt. According to Russell, his department began treating road salt as a way to both cut costs and put less of the material into the environment without endangering public safety.

Local distributor Matthew Scott of New Hampshire Ice Melt defended the product, saying the problem was an isolated incident and that the Canadian manufacturer, Innovative Municipal Products, had tested a sample of the material and found nothing wrong.

Innovative Municipal Products did not return press inquiries as of press time. Scott pointed to the way the department handled and stored the treated material as the likely cause of the problem.

Double stacking the material to heights as much as 25 feet in the town’s salt storage shed and allowing moisture to mix with the material resulted in the caked mass, he said.

Trucks already loaded with the salt left out in the elements were also exposed to moisture, which then froze, according to Scott.

“They didn’t cover it and any of the material that was exposed to that snow got the (Ice B Gone) washed out of it. That’s why they ended up with 2 inches of frozen salt,” Scott said. “This is a one-time incident. The company has sold over 4 million gallons and this the only instance of this happening.”

Scott said the manufacturer recommends covering the salt trucks, a move that Russell rejected.

“We’re not covering them. We’ve never had to cover them and we’re not going to start,” he said. Russell added that the salt that had caked up in storage had been stored back in October and left unexposed to moisture.

Bill Burns, superintendent of Keene’s Public Works Department, has been using Ice B Gone for five years without an incident. He said the treated salt had cut back on overtime and fuel costs during the winter. The department plans to continue purchasing the treatment in the future, according to Burns.

Despite the product’s good performance, Russell said the town will go back to using regular salt until either the manufacturer or the supplier can come up with a definitive way to prevent the problem from coming up again.

“We’re done until (Scott) can prove what was wrong with his product,” Russell said. “This stuff is definitely not out of the question as long as I get some answers and promises. It hasn’t jeopardized public safety, but I can’t have 20 salters out there waiting to get loaded.”

Salem's ruined roads repaired

Salem Editor — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:43:00 GMT

BYJENN MCDOWELL

Vincent and Barbara Ferrero of 52 Mary Ann Ave. in Salem used to have to park their car on Shore Drive and walk a grocery cart down the rutted dirt road to get to their home.

The Ferreros, who have lived at their home now for 43 years, said the road was so bad they got canceled from AAA service because of having too many tows.

After heavy rains or flooding from nearby Arlington Lake, the road would be so muddy and in such disrepair it was, by all accounts, like quicksand.

“We tried to jack the car up once,” said Barbara, to put some stabilizers under it, “and (the jack) disappeared into the mud.”

Things got scary when emergency crews had to come down the street, too. When Barbara had her first child, the town had to bring a grader to go down the road first just so the Ferreros could get to their driveway, she said.

The Ferreros’ neighbor, David Augusta, hasn’t been living at his home at 37 Mary Ann Ave. for quite as long, but can match the Ferreros in incredible stories about the road’s condition.

“I broke my leg on the street three years ago, stepping in a rut,” Augusta said. “When I was in the ambulance, I fell off the gurney because they hit a rut.”

But now, the residents of the street, along with the adjoined Elsie and Graham avenues, will have no more horror stories to tell about the conditions of their unpaved roads.

After 30 years of trying to get the town to help out with paving their private roads, the town eventually agreed.

“If you come down my street now, it’s beautiful. I mean, what a difference!” Augusta said.

The neighborhood presented Busby Construction of Atkinson with a plaque on Friday, Aug. 8, to thank them for doing an outstanding job on the road repairs, which included improving the drainage, putting up retaining walls, putting down loam on the property edges, tarring driveways and even installing new mailboxes.

“We also want to thank you, the residents, for cooperating,” said Ginny Busby, who owns the construction company with her husband Doug Busby. “Our job is easier when we have the cooperation of all the neighbors.”

Doug Busby said the neighborhood road was about as bad of a road as he’s ever seen. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being the worst, he rated it an eight.

“When we were bidding the project back in late February, there was probably 8 inches of ice caked on it,” said Doug Busby.

The road was also porous with potholes that went straight through the ice layers and through the dirt below, he said.

Busby construction began the first step of cutting down trees in April, and then put the extra drainage in. As of right now, they are wrapping up their work in the area.

“I can’t believe after 30 years we got what we got,” said Augusta. “These guys had compassion, and they worked as a crew.”

Shore Dr. repairs may be extended

Salem Editor — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:17:00 GMT

BY Darrell Halen

Selectmen may break a oneyear plan to repave Shore Drive into two phases.

It’s a move that will help keep tax rate increases to 3 percent and free up money to be spent on flood mitigation, said Selectman Chairman Everett McBride.

During their Monday, Nov. 26, meeting, officials discussed a recommendation by Town Manager Jonathan Sistare to do the road work over two years. They held off on making a decision.

The work, which has an estimated price tag of $2,145,000, would provide a new pavement surface, new gravel to improve the foundation and additional drainage.

“These people have been waiting 20 years to get these roads done,” Selectman Patrick Hargreaves said of Shore Drive residents.

But McBride said residents in other areas have been waiting a long time for their streets to be improved.

Bob Puff, the town’s director of engineering, said that public safety on Shore Drive was not being jeopardized by deferring half the work for a year – doing the first phase in 2008, followed by the second installment in 2009.

According to McBride, it’s important for the town to pursue projects related to flood prevention.

One proposal would spend $100,000 for catch basin cleanings and another would commit $200,000 for a drainage inventory and assessment.

“We’re trying to do as much as we can on the flood mitigation and be reasonable and responsible with the road program,” he said during the meeting. “I’m not happy that we’re going to do half of it but half of it is better than none of it.”

Money for the Shore Drive work would be proposed to voters in the form of a town warrant article.

Bypass may open soon

Salem Editor — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:52:00 GMT

BY DARRELL HALEN

A large portion of the new Route 111 bypass, which is expected to bring traffic relief to parts of Windham and Salem, is tentatively scheduled to open at the end of October.

The 2.5-mile stretch from Searles Road in Windham to Zachary Crossing Road in Salem, intersects Route 28 about a half-mile north of the busy Route 28/Lake Street/Shadow Lake Road intersection in Salem where a Hess gasoline station is located.

The opening of the bypass is expected to relieve traffic on Range Road in Windham and Shadow Lake in Salem, which are part of the current Route 111 and connect to that intersection.

The intersections at Route 28 and Zachary Crossing Road will have both have traffic lights. Zachary Crossing is opposite a connector to East Broadway.

The state transportation project costs roughly $30 million.

The state still needs to construct a connection from the Searles end of the bypass to the I-93 Exit 3 ramps in Windham.

A road by any other name – Apartment owner wants street name changed to remove stigma

Salem Editor — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 17:07:00 GMT

BY MATT HERSH

When people rent apartments in Salem, location is an important consideration. But for property owner Larry Jacobs, it can be a deal-breaker.

In March, Jacobs purchased 42 apartments on Meisner Circle. But now, he’s having trouble finding people who want to move in because of the complex’s bad reputation of drug deals and criminal activity.

When he tells people where the apartments are in town, they hang up on him, he said.

That’s why he’s asked selectmen to approve changing the street’s name, an uncommon request.

But the board is split over the issue, and getting the name changed could become a lengthy process.

One of the five selectmen said he is against changing the name, one is undecided, and another said he will abstain from voting because he does locksmith work for Jacobs.

At a recent selectmen meeting, the board’s chairman, Everett McBride, said he’s not inclined to change a street’s name for any reason. In his 14 years serving on the board, the town has only changed one street name, he said.

The only time the board approved a change was when Felder Avenue became Fielder Avenue because the street sign did not match the property owners’ deeds.

“I’m not in favor of changing the street’s name,” he said. “I think (Jacobs) is doing everything he needs to do to turn that property around.”

Others spoke in favor of changing the name in order to help Jacobs and to remove the stigma surrounding the apartments.

“I have no problem renaming a street for a good reason,” said Selectman Beth Roth. “(Jacobs) is trying to bring something positive to the town and I don’t see any downside.”

Though he will abstain from voting, Selectman Patrick Hargreaves said he also supports Jacobs’ effort. In the four months Jacobs has owned the apartments, several positive changes have taken place, he said.

“It used to be that when you mentioned drugs in Salem, you were talking about Meisner Circle,” Hargreaves said.

“But (Jacobs) did an overhaul and turned it around. He’s trying to revive this cul-de-sac.”

Still, getting the name changed would require convincing board members Arthur Barnes and Michael Lyons, who are still on the fence about the issue.

“I’m still thinking about it,” Lyons said. “I’m not unsympathetic to what he wants to do. I just haven’t made up my mind yet.”

The next step for Jacobs will be choosing a proposed name for the street and meeting with Town Manager Henry LaBranche.

LaBranche said he is also looking into whether changing the name would have any impact on public safety because it could cause confusion for emergency vehicles.

The board will likely hold a public hearing and make a decision on the matter in August, LaBranche said.