Councilor: Maybe the city should sell official space savers

City Councilor Tim McCarthy (Hyde Park, Roslindale, Mattapan) says it might be time for the city to make its peace with space savers - and make some money by selling official City of Boston space savers.

At a hearing on snow removal today, McCarthy said the idea, proposed by a constituent, has grown on him. In an era when some people would put out "furnaces and toilets" to spite trash workers tasked with removing their space savers, the city could bring in extra revenue for snow and trash removal via official space savers, he said.

McCarthy called the hearing to look at ways the city could improve snow-removal efforts in the future, based on the experience this year. He started by praising city workers for doing an excellent job in the face of historic snowstorms, and noted they were putting in such long hours that towards the end he saw some at a DPW facility and they were so clearly wiped out "I thought I was in front of a methadone clinic."

Councilor Sal LaMattina (East Boston, Charlestown, North End) said he'd want to see increases in the current $50 residential fines for not shoveling snow - and said the money could go to hiring winter "hokeys" to clear crosswalks and the like.

DPW Commissioner Michael Dennehy said the city issued 6,000 shoveling tickets this winter - 5,800 of them to residents, the rest to local businesses. Mayor Walsh recently proposed increases in fines for commercial snow scofflaws.

Councilor Mark Ciommo (Allston/Brighton) said he'd like to see the city set up a phone bank to call landlords of large residential complexes who are shirking their snow-shoveling responsibilities - to supplement fines with daily phone calls until they finally clean their walks.

Dennehy said he would love to buy more Bobcats to aid in snow removal. "I'm a huge proponent of Bobcats," he said. He said they could prove especially helpful in areas where sidewalks are blocked and either nobody can figure out who's responsible, such as American Legion Highway in Roslindale, or for just helping citizens out in areas where the property is owned by agencies that just aren't shoveling - such as bridges over MBTA train lines.

Dennehy said he would also love to buy snow melters, but said "they are cost prohibitive." Even the smaller ones, which melt 135 tons of snow an hour, can cost more than $500,000, and that doesn't include the cost of the gasoline required to run them, he said.

Still, he said that with the help of two snow melters - and their crews - from New York City and the rental of two larger snow melters from private companies, the city was able to clear enough space at its snow farms to not have to dump snow into the harbor.

Dennehy said the city was fortunate this year that the BRA had a large parcel of undeveloped land in the seaport area that could be used for snow farming and melting. He said he's concerned what might happen in future years if the land is developed. Although the city won a state waiver to dump snow into the harbor, the city doesn't want to do that in part because of all the stuff that winds up in the snow that would then wind up in the water.