MORRISTOWN - For town highway superintendents, the annual evolution of winter to spring means a quick transition from cleaning and storing snowplows to preparing roads for increased summer traffic.

Friday morning in Morristown, this scenario equated to town highway employees closing down the Scotch Bush Road for approximately 1.2 miles of new pavement.

“This is the only road I have scheduled to pave this summer besides the East River Road, which won’t be done until after the sewer project is completed,” said town Highway Superintendent Michael L. Bogart.

Earlier this month, Mr. Bogart’s men completed an inventory of the department’s trucks and equipment - removing and cleaning plows, wings and the like from trucks in preparation for summer duties.

“The work crew has been busy cleaning, priming and painting all plows, wings and underbody scrapers before storage,” he said. “Spring cleanup of winter road sand on town roads is complete, as is cleanup of village streets.”

Spring work has also been the order of business for cemeteries, and town highway employees expect to have new U.S. flags up before Memorial Day.

Besides Friday’s paving project, highway employees have started their summer work schedule, Mr. Bogart said, switching from eight-hour, Monday-through-Friday shifts to 10-hour work days Monday through Thursday.

“We’ve got several road culverts to change out and will shim-pave over them. Four or five of them, plus the annual ditching and shoulder work along the roadside,” he said.

During Tuesday’s town board meeting, Mr. Bogart reported that Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the state Legislature have reached agreement on a $363.1 million Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program for 2012-2013, the same level as last year.

For the town, this means a CHIPS reimbursement of $82,389.48 on June 15 for road projects.

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