It's not even Thanksgiving, but the city of Boston is already gearing up for the woes of winter in New England.
It's the unofficial start of the snowy season when Mayor Marty Walsh stands with virtually his entire cabinet in the cold next to an enormous pile of road salt and shiny new pieces of snow-removal equipment. Walsh says Boston's streets will be ready to take on another record-setting winter if it comes to that.
For major roads, the city purchased two new giant snow blowers that will shoot snow straight into new dump trucks driving alongside. Just like in all those videos of how Montreal does it that you watched while you were home-bound last January. (And to be fair, Montreal spent about eight times in 2011-2012 what Boston spent last year.)
Walsh says the new equipment will prevent much of the snow plowed off the streets from building up on sidewalks and corners.
"These new storm blowers will give us the ability not to be pushing snow but actually removing it as we move along," Walsh told reporters at the city's Frontage Road Public Works Department depot.
According to DPW Commissioner Mike Dennehy, the snow removal budget was boosted 22 percent since last winter, from $18 million to over $22 million now.
But like most everyone else in the city, the mayor hopes there's only an average snowfall this time around and the city won't have to blow it's snow budget.
And if it doesn't snow and there's money left over? Well, last January, before the major storms hit, Walsh was thinking about possibly using unused snow removal funds for road improvements.
"And then two weekends later it didn't stop snowing for three months," he said. "So I'm not going to talk about what if we don't use the money."
And if you believe the diviners at the Old Farmer's Almanac, better get your shovel ready: the 223-year-old publication says we're in for a snowy December.
