Storm Update Statement from Mayor Nicholson January 26, 2026 at 7pm
The second round of the storm is here! We’ve had about 18 inches of snow so far with more on the way tonight. Here’s another long information post.
Gardner Public Schools will have a 2-hr delay tomorrow. (Jan 27)
The on-street parking ban is still in effect and has been extended to 7am on Jan 27. There will be a municipal parking lot ban after parking is allowed on the streets again, from 7am to 10am, so the plows can fully clear the municipal lots. Please keep these bans in mind and don’t get a ticket/towed.
DPW crews and contractors are still out plowing. Please give plows the space they need to be safe while clearing the streets so we can be safe too. During my ride-along yesterday, I was surprised how many people drove around to pass the plows. This isnt safe for the plow crews, and the road infront of them isn’t plowed yet and not as safe to drive on as it is behind them. Please be patient. They have been working since before 9am yesterday. Thank you to the DPW crews for their dedication to the City!
All areas of the City that had power outages yesterday have had power restored. Thank you to the linemen from National Grid for the repairs made to the transformers in the Washington Hills Neighborhood the storm.
The Gardner Fire Department put out a request for residents to help clear fire hydrants around the city to make sure we are prepared should any emergency situations arise.
I’ve signed an Executive Order suspending the parking meters from now through February 6. The City Code has an ordinance that states that the owners of the downtown buildings are responsible for clearing the snow on the sidewalks in front of their buildings with a path that allows for pedestrian travel. The snow banks are very high- with some meters fully buried. The DPW’s first priority is to clear the streets and then the sidewalks within 1.5 miles of the schools, per state and local regulations. In order to clear the banks on the sidewalks, the plowing equipment has to be taken off the front-end loaders and the salting devices taken out of the dump trucks, so that the snow on the sidewalks can be hauled away. This process can take 1-2 days to do. To make sure this doesn’t cause delays with plowing operations, this is usually done when we know there isn’t another storm coming that would need plowing/salting. We are working to schedule a day to cut down the snow banks in the downtown and South Gardner center, but until that day is scheduled, parking downtown will be meter free. The 3-hour parking limit is still in effect.
Once again, thank you to the Gardner DPW, our Public Safety Personnel, National Grid crews, and everyone else who’s worked over the last day and a half through the storm to keep us all safe.
Thank you also to Governor Maura Healey & Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll for calling to check in on how things were going here during the storm.