Will Hamilton's DPW Plow Your Street This Winter?

It’s that time of year when the discussion of plowing and sanding streets starts to come up.

In Hamilton, that means revisiting a topic that first rose to attention in fall 2014: private ways and whether the town or the residents are responsible for clearing them.

Department of Public Works Director Bill Redford explained to selectmen at their Monday night meeting that his department last year realized it had been plowing and sanding areas considered “private ways” -- roads with fewer than four homes on them -- and that it shouldn’t be plowing those under the town’s current bylaw.

Further, Redford explained, the department also noticed last fall that it didn’t have up-to-date signed petitions from homeowners releasing the town from liability and permitting DPW plow drivers to clear some other roads in town that have more than four homes, but which have never been named public ways.

And, in still another situation, he explained, the DPW has been plowing some streets for which there are restrictions put in place by either property deeds or the planning board. Redford said the planning board sometimes waives strict road construction requirements, but then requires that a particular street’s or neighborhood’s residents be responsible for their own plowing and sanding.

“We’re coming back to the Board of Selectmen and saying, two issues,” Redford explained Monday night. “We believe that we should be not plowing anything that the bylaw says we shouldn’t, and the second is to go forward in updating our petitions again and helping if we can to remove any restrictions that either the planning board or deed show.”

When the DPW sent letters to homeowners last fall about the issue, Redford said, it received some push back as residents said notice was short ahead of the coming winter. Selectmen directed the DPW to continue plowing as it had been until the issue could be addressed after the 2014-15 winter.

Now, Redford explained, the DPW is asking residents to either complete that petition process or understand that the DPW will not be plowing certain streets under restrictions this winter.

To simplify, there are three plowing issues under discussion:

1. Private ways with fewer than four homes on them cannot and will not be plowed by the town under Hamilton’s existing bylaw. It would require town meeting action to change this situation.
2. Subdivisions built in accordance with standards, but never accepted as public ways and for which there are no planning board, neighborhood association, deed or other restrictions can request the DPW plow the streets. The DPW simply needs a petition signed by a majority of homeowners in the subdivision that grants permission for the roads to be used by the public and releases DPW plow drivers of all liability. If that petition is recorded at the DPW, the town will plow the streets.
3. For subdivisions or common driveways with more than four homes but for which there is some kind of planning board or deed restriction, a petition before the planning board will need to occur. Those residents can come before the planning board and request that the restriction be removed. As long as the DPW can safely plow the area and the restriction is lifted, it will be plowed.

Redford told Patch that his department isn’t doing deed research to determine what properties fall into which category, but “if we come across it, we’re going to respect that.”

He said the DPW in the past had plowed some streets it shouldn’t have and not plowed some that it should. Redford said their are petitions for plowing that haven’t been updated in a decade.

“We said, ’We’ve got to clean up our act and get things right,” he explained.

Everyone who has been plowed by the town in the past will receive a letter explaining the situation along that particular stretch of road. The letter will let the homeowners know which of the above three situations applies to them.

Redford said he expects that the DPW will be plowing more streets this winter than it has in the past, but he doesn’t expect the additional work to be overwhelming to the department. The workload won’t be entirely clear until all the petitions are in and planning board decisions have been made as requested.