By Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

There may be no topic in Somerville more explosive and emotional than how to manage cars, streets and sidewalks during and after snowstorms. No matter what our policies are and how well they are communicated and implemented, people are going to be upset.

If you had asked me last Saturday, Dec. 15 how I thought we were doing on snow procedures, I would have said ‚ÄúSomerville rocks!‚Äù  Based on good forecasts, we declared a snow emergency to go into effect at 10 a.m. on Thursday.  We notified even earlier, sending out a news release, a Connect CTY call and an email blast at 7 a.m. as well as posting the information on the web, on our cable stations and on our info hotline (617-628-SNOW).  For the first time ever, we even activated some of our flashing blue light indicators at entry intersections around the city. (There are twenty-two of them, but not all of them are powered up yet ‚Äì including the one in Davis Square.)  As always, we gave people four hours to move their cars (seven if you count from when we announced the emergency) and we deployed for aggressive plowing, salting and sanding.

As a result ‚Äì although there were still plenty of traffic problems, plowed-in driveways, people resenting the early morning call, etc. ‚Äì we were in much better shape both during and after the storm than most neighboring communities.  All day long, we were getting calls and emails about how much clearer the roads were in Somerville.

And then came Sunday. All the forecasts were unanimous: three inches of snow between 1 a.m. and noon, followed by rain in the afternoon, and a hard freeze later that night.  We decided not to call a snow emergency, since we‚Äôd have all afternoon to clear the roads and prep for the freeze. By the time it was clear that we were getting six inches of snow instead of three, it was already late morning, and our DPW vehicles had been out since 4 a.m.  We thought we could stay ahead of the precipitation, but the freeze on Sunday night turned large sections of the city‚Äôs curbs and sidewalks (and some streets) into blocks of ice.

So here‚Äôs what we‚Äôre doing now: residents who are currently in legal curbside spaces have until 8 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 20 to dig out their cars and move them before the city resumes ticketing for parking in the same space for over 48 hours. Tonight, and on Wednesday and Thursday nights, residents who don‚Äôt have a space can park overnight ‚Äì from 5 p.m. to 7 a.m. in the following city and school lots: Argenziano School, Brown School, Capuano Early Childhood Center, Central Library, City Hall Concourse, Cummings School, East Somerville Community School, Healey School, Kennedy School, Kiley Barrel Municipal Lot (Union Square), Veterans‚Äô Memorial Skating Rink,  West Branch Library, West Somerville Neighborhood School, Winter Hill Community School and all metered municipal parking lots. Also, if you need sand for your sidewalk, you can get up to five gallons of it at the DPW yard at 1 Franey Road.  (Bring your own container.)

At the same time, our crews will continue to work to clear intersections, handicapped spaces, hydrants, curbside meter spaces and city-owned sidewalks – and to sand and salt roadways.

Temperatures later in the week are supposed to get back above freezing for at least part of the day, which should help all of us – but there may be more snow on the way as early as Wednesday night.

This will remain a less-than-ideal situation in which we simply have to cooperate with one another and be patient. We will strive to make our future snow storm responses more like the one we had on Dec. 13 than the one we had on Dec. 16, but we will always be constrained by the quality of the information we get – and the growing number of vehicles competing for curb space in this densely populated city.

East Somerville Community School Update:  And speaking of getting through hardship by working together, I want to take just a moment to thank Supt. Tony Pierantozzi and the entire staff of the Somerville Public Schools for the amazingly fast and thorough job they have done in getting the kids of the ESCS back into class so quickly and so well.  As of Wednesday, everyone should be relocated to either the Edgerly, the Cummings or the Capuano. We have a long way to go before we fill in the details on a permanent home for ESCS ‚Äì and I‚Äôll give residents an update as I know more abut the financial implications of the fire ‚Äì but I want to thank the school administrators, the teachers, the families, the School Committee, the Board of Aldermen, all the businesses and community groups that have come forward and everyone else who has contributed to our rapid response to the tragic fire on Dec. 9.