Snow In Sight

DPW is preparing for possible snowfall tonight and on Saturday.

  It looks like Swampscott could get its first appreciable snowfall of 2012 overnight and again on Saturday during the day. Public Works Director Gino Cresta said Thursday at noon that he was hearing a prediction of 1-3 inches tonight and conflicting reports for Saturday. Saturday's predictions include calls for 1 to 3 inches or as much as 6 inches. In any event, four salt and sand trucks will hit local roads tonight, he said. Cresta will monitor the situation on Saturday and call in crews as needed. The department will be hooking up plows tomorrow. So far this season, the department has spent only about $15,000 of its $150,000 budget for snow removal. That includes money for overtime, contractors, sand and salt. This year's savings, so …

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Sea Notes: Stories on the Swampscott Waterfront

Clean Sweep at Fisherman's Beach

DPW crews are pulling a few years' worth of sand from Fisherman's Beach and depositing it hundreds of yards away on the beach at Cassidy Park.

  DPW loader operator Mark Gambale scooped bucket after bucket of tide- and storm-heaved sand from mounds heaped at the Fisherman's Beach seawall on Tuesday. Over time the sand had spilled into the parking lot and was blowing on to Humphrey Street and across the road, said Rich Malagrifa, the selectmen's liaison to the Harbor Advisory Committee. The selectman says hopefully the sand won't build up like that again now that the town plans to install kayak racks at Fisherman's Beach in the spring. DPW crews will have access to the beach right up to the sea wall — with the kayaks off the beach and in racks — and will keep the sand at grade, he said. DPW Director Gino Cresta said crews hit the beach yesterday and are hauling the sand in dump …

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