DPW Yard Gets Makeover

This time it's their yard getting spruced up and their surface getting paved.

After a year that included paving on Burrill, Stanley and Puritan, the s getting some much needed asphalt spread at its garage.

"In the middle there were some huge potholes," DPW Director Gino Cresta said yesterday in the Paradise Road lot.

Last week, DPW moved plows and other pieces equipment, temporarily, to space at the pumping station on Humphrey Street.

Monday afternoon, the oil-rich smell of asphalt circulated on Paradise Road as Atlantic Paving of Salem dumped, spread and rolled new asphalt sidewalks outside the yard.

They will do the same inside the yard's gate today and tomorrow.

Inside the yard on Monday, a loader bucket lifted 2,000-pound blocks into place along the rear wall.

Cresta is doubling the size of his back retaining wall to create space for bins to store stone gravel and other material.

DPW crews also swept away brush, vines and accumulated odds and ends from the yard and behind fuel tanks to open up the space for paving and make the yard more presentable and organized, Cresta said.

He plans to line the lot and assign spaces to DPW vehicles.

Part of the space-making is being driven by a need for storage space. The department will lose off-site storage space when the new police station goes up on town land at the pumping station.

The DPW yard paving is being funded by $65,000 from a capital improvement article approved at this year's Town Meeting, the director said.

The Paradise Road lot was cracked and pocked by pot holes after going at least 25 years without paving, Cresta said.

The typical road gets repaved every 15-20 years, he said.

The DPW director said he wants the work site to be more organized for the crews and look better, for them and the public.