Sen. Elizabeth Warren offers thanks for Mass. snow blower in DC
Last week, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh said he’d lend two freshly-purchased snow blowers to Washington, D.C. officials ahead of the major winter storm.
On Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren spotted a snow blower with Massachusetts plates in the nation’s capital, so she offered her thanks in a Facebook post.
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“There’s a huge piece of equipment here in DC clearing the snow and shooting it into 18-wheelers to be hauled off – and it has Massachusetts plates! I don’t know if this snow-eating monster was your doing, Marty Walsh, but thanks!’’ she wrote.
However, the equipment isn’t from Walsh or the city of Boston. That particular snow blower is from local contractor MJM Construction, according to Jessica French Goyette, vice president of W.L. French.
W.L. French, MJM Construction, and Cavalieri Construction sent a caravan of crews and equipment to D.C. to help with snow cleanup, French Goyette said. The crews “made quick work’’ of a half-mile stretch of D.C. and were more efficient than local plows, according to a laudatory story in The Washington Post.
The city’s two new truck-mounted snow blowers, along with nine public works employees, are in Baltimore to help with snow removal, the mayor’s office said. They’re scheduled to be there until Friday.
Boston purchased those two snow blowers over the summer after surviving last winter’s deluge of snowfall. Unlike snow plows, which simply push snow to the edges of the street, the blowers suck up snow and launch it into dump trucks. Those trucks are then driven out of the city for disposal.
Before D.C. was hit with nearly 18 inches of snow, Walsh offered up the snow blowers to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“We bought two truck-mounted snow blowers last year to remove the snow off the street,’’ Walsh said while visiting D.C. for the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “When I see the mayor later today, I’m going to offer it to her, if she needs the snow blowers to come to this city.’’
Massachusetts is helping, too. The state Department of Transportation sent an 80-ton snow melter, five front end loaders, and employees and volunteers to D.C. on Wednesday.
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