The Ipswich Road Project will resume sometime around April 1st. The contractor, J. Tropeano, Inc. will resume work which will consist of shoulder sloping, landscaping, capping of the stone walls, planting of trees and final paving on the roadway and sidewalks. Police Details will be on site to direct traffic in the affected areas of the project.
We are now using a GoogleGroup to notify residents of important events in a timely manner. Websites, local papers and the local cable channel have been used in the past for notification purposes but these methods have an inherent time delay and are not direct methods of communication. Some of the topics you will be notified about are:
Water Quality Changes such as when we add a new treatment process
The Topsfield Composting Center will reopen for the season on April 3rd. The Composting Facility is located at the Public Works Facility on Boston Street. There is a fee to drop off leaves and yard waste. Residents can go to the Selectmen's Office in Town Hall and purchase a Compost Access Ticket for $5.00. Each Ticket will allow the disposal of up to 2 cubic yards (a standard body pick up truck) of material per visit.Each visit will require a separate access ticket.
The Compost Center is open and staffed on Saturdays from 9 AM to 1 PM only. No weekday drop-off is permitted unless prior arrangements have been made. Any additional information can be obtained by calling the Highway Dept. at 978-887-1542.
Hydrant flushing is scheduled to start on March 29, 2010. Flushing removes sediment from the water mains, identifies hydrants in need of repair and checks system fire flows. The work will be conducted on weeknights from 9 P.M. until 1 A.M. to minimize the disruption to our customers. Many customers will have rust-colored or black water while the water mains are flushed and for a period afterwards. We apologize for the inconvience. Click here to view the schedule. Please subscribe to our email list if you would like to receive daily schedule updates via email.
Coming into contact with a mailbox is a common obstacle that our operators face during storm activities. These chances increase dramatically whenever considerable snow falls, especially heavy wet snow. Most, if not all, mailboxes are within the Town right-of-way. Heavy snow as it is plowed will occasionally damage or topple mailboxes. Often it is because they are too close to the roadway or were poorly constructed or supported. Heavy, wet snow exiting the plow increases the potential for mailbox damage. The repair of mailboxes is the property owner’s responsibility since the right-of-way extends further onto your property than you realize. The Highway Department makes every effort not to damage property, but it does happen. Mailboxes should be placed as far back from the edge of the road as possible.
It is not uncommon for plows to create damage to lawns or driveway encroachment areas during winter months. Should you notice any damage to your property by our plows, please call the Highway Department Office. You'll be placed on our "spring clean-up" list for our crews to repair once all the snow has melted. Generally the repairs are all done at the same time unless damage is deemed un-safe.
The Highway Department currently has 1 Foreman, 2 heavy equipment operators, 1 mechanic, and 1 truck driver who are all involved in snow operations with the Town. We also use as many other Town Department employees as possible. Plowing operation activities also include the hiring of approximately 10 pieces of equipment from outside contractors. At a minimum there will be at least 10 pieces of equipment out on the road, but generally, up to 20 pieces is not uncommon. Other town department personnel will assist in snow activities such as wing operators or equipment operators during plowing operations.
