Fitchburg sees first snowfall of the season

It’s that time of year again to load up the trucks with salt.

DPW crews in Fitchburg geared up Tuesday for the first snow of the season.

The city saw nearly 2 inches of the white stuff fall overnight.

“We’ve been doing this for centuries and we’re very good at it,” said Stephen DiNatale, mayor of Fitchburg.

Mayor DiNatale says more than a dozen crews treated the roads overnight, but they held back on breaking out the plows.

“We believe because of the warm temperatures leading up to today, the asphalt is still pretty warm maybe that’ll help that it won’t turn to ice,” said DiNatale.

The city of Fitchburg has plenty of salt to treat the roads, but in some cases, they’ll need to use sand too.

“The sand works as grit so that people, when they’re coming up the streets or down the streets, will be able to maintain their driving,” said Michael East, DPW Dispatcher for Fitchburg.

East says Fitchburg is one of the hilliest cities in the country, so when winter weather hits, they not only use salt on the roads, but also sand for those roads on an incline that can get pretty dangerous when it snows.

“We’ve had occasions in the past where it wasn’t believed that we were going to get much of anything and then mother nature pushed it a little bit to the right and we got pummeled,” said East.

The first snow didn’t add up to much, but the mayor knows this is only the beginning.

“For me it’s dollar signs you know going out, but we’re gonna get our snow, we’re going to get our share of snow like we always do,” said DiNatale.

The snow has mostly turned to rain, but drivers should take it slow Wednesday morning just in case the roads are slick.

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