Maturo: All East Haven Roads Reopened by Tuesday Morning

The following is the latest blizzard recovery update from the East Haven Mayor's Office.

Following a meeting this morning with the Town’s Police, Fire and Public Works departments, Mayor Maturo provided the following update:

This morning, Mayor Maturo indicated that he anticipates all Town roads to be cleared for one lane of traffic by Tuesday morning at the latest.  To ensure that the cleanup process is moving correctly and efficiently, Maturo indicated that he would be personally touring locations where crews are working throughout the day.

Maturo explained, “Work clearing secondary roads around Town continued throughout the night with more than 60 streets made passable for one lane of traffic. Today the Town will have a minimum of 7 outside contractors along with 2 fully-staffed Town crews using heavy equipment to get to the secondary roads that have not been opened as of yet. The immediate goal is to open each street to enable emergency response and allow the residents to return to work. I anticipate that all streets will be cleared for one lane of traffic by Tuesday morning at the latest.”

Maturo indicated that he has received requests from residents for a projected timeline for when certain streets would be plowed.  Maturo responded, “Due to the need to continually shift and re-locate plowing resources in response to medical and other emergencies, it is difficult to provide a specific order in which streets will be plowed.  Resources are being deployed to open up travel to as many people as possible and, again, I anticipate all roads will be open to one lane of traffic by tomorrow morning.”

Once every road is made accessible, the priority will then shift to making all of the school bus routes wide enough for travel and to widen intersections so that buses will be able to make the turns in a safe manner. This stage of cleanup will be critical in order to enable the schools to reopen as soon as possible.

In order to achieve these critical goals, the Mayor cautioned residents that aggressive enforcement of the parking ban will be necessary in order to get every street opened as indicated above.

Maturo continued, “Any vehicle that is inhibiting this cleanup effort will be tagged and towed if absolutely necessary. Residents are also asked to remind private contractors that it is illegal when clearing residential driveways to push the snow into the roadway.  Doing such will only exasperate the situation and create additional dangerous conditions for emergency crews and regular vehicles alike.”

Maturo also indicated that the Town will continue to offer snowbound residents the service of picking up their medical prescriptions in certain critical situations through the courtesy of a McDermott Auto Group vehicle and the National Guard’s Humvee. Maturo indicated that these vehicles will also enable emergency response to any snowbound location. Residents who are snowbound and in dire need of their medication should contact 9-1-1 for this service. The Town will pick up the prescription at the pharmacy and deliver it to the resident’s door.

Following the meeting, Maturo also provided the following updated closing information:

• Town of East Haven Offices will be CLOSED to the Public on Monday and on Tuesday as scheduled for the Lincoln’s Birthday Holiday;
• All East Haven Schools will be CLOSED Tuesday with further assessment later;
• East Haven Senior Center will be CLOSED both Monday and Tuesday (Lincoln’s Birthday);
• Hagaman Memorial Library will be CLOSED both Monday and Tuesday (Lincoln’s Birthday);
• Trash Master (our Town contractor) informs us there will be NO Trash or Recycling Pickup Monday and Tuesday and those days will NOT be able to be picked up this week. The company will attempt to resume collections on Wednesday if possible.

Maturo concluded, “As I indicated yesterday, we will continue to use the Emergency Notification Call system as necessary to keep residents informed of important updates. For general updates, residents should continue to monitor the Town’s website (townofeasthavenct.org), Twitter, FaceBook or the New Haven Register and East Haven Patch websites on the Internet.”