Menino blames plowing firms

Casazza, who has acknowledged underestimating the size of Saturday's snowfall, also thinks contractors working in West Roxbury and Roslindale "didn't carry the load," Menino said, leading to vehement complaints from city residents.

While residents from other parts of the city have also carped about poor snow removal -- and plodding traffic, Menino said yesterday that "95 percent" of the city was "done real well" and that the neighborhoods exhibiting problems were the fault of contractors, whom the mayor declined to identify.

Menino also said that despite the criticism, he continues to back his longtime public works commissioner and close ally, saying: "I support Joe. He's done a great job for 38 years."

Frustration persisted throughout the city yesterday.

A private school bus became stuck for five hours on a snow-choked Jamaica Plain side street, long enough for residents to offer food and drink to those on board and frustrating enough for two students that they walked out the back door, intent on getting to school on their own.

On March Way in West Roxbury, Robert Anderson missed work for the second straight day. His street was plowed yesterday afternoon.

Crossing into Newton from Brighton on Tremont Street yesterday was a study in contrasts: The alley of cleared or buried automobiles lining both sides of the Boston street quickly disappeared at the Newton border, where streets adjoining the city were almost perfectly clear of parked cars.

But residents on Chesterfield Street in Hyde Park's Readville section were doing fine. They said their street, where Menino lives, was plowed early and often.

"It's the mayor's street," said Brian Cacciatore, who lives around the corner on Farrin Street, which was still unplowed late yesterday afternoon. "He's got to be able to come and go, I mean, he is the mayor."

Billy Dalton, Menino's neighbor on Farrin Street, couldn't get out of his driveway until today.

"The plowing was just really slow," Dalton said. "This is as bad as I've seen it."

Menino said the street doesn't get special treatment because he lives there and that it was plowed often "because it has more traffic." He said he saw "plows go down Farrin Street three or four times" and that "I don't know what their problem is." Menino said crews were working "around the clock" to clear the snow. Crews were out all Monday night, all day yesterday, and were scheduled to work until midnight tonight, a spokesman said. There were 300 pieces of equipment on the road Monday night and 200 yesterday.

One of the Boston streets that remained unplowed yesterday was Parley Vale street, a private way off Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, where a mini-bus driver for First Student Inc. found her vehicle stuck around 7:15 a.m. "Two of the kids just took off," said Adele P. Angelo, the driver. "Oh, well."

Oliver L. Farnum Sr., the school bus monitor riding aboard Bus MS-80, said he warned the two girls from Hyde Park that they could face school discipline for their actions. "They didn't care," he said in an interview while he waited nearly five hours for the bus to begin moving again.

A third McKinley Vocational Technical High School student who stayed on board Bus MS-80, Malachi D. Dale, 16, was given a ride to school around 11:30 a.m. by Boston Police Officer John Rickard. "I'm hungry," Dale said shortly before he left the bus. "I'm tired, and I want to go somewhere."

Edward A. Leclerc,Boston region vice president for First Student Inc., said last night in a telephone interview he was investigating the incident and could not immediately explain why his company did not follow its standard practice and send a back-up bus to the Parley Vale street.

Leclerc said he had "no information" regarding whether the two female students made it to their school. He also said he wouldn't know, until his investigation is complete, whether other students were stranded because Bus MS-80 was unable to make other stops yesterday. Boston school officials did not know whether the students had arrived either. Around 11:45 a.m. a city Department of Public Works crew arrived. After putting sand underneath the wheels, a city DPW worker muscled the minibus out of its ruts, leaving Angelo free to drive away.

"I was appalled," said long-time Parley Vale resident Frances Streeter, who was among residents who called City Hall, the police, the school department, or the DPW seeking help for the stranded bus. "If they were my kids, I would have been livid!"

Boston City Councilor-at-Large Maura Hennigan, whose office also was called by area residents, questioned why the School Committee and the Menino administration decided to open school at all yesterday.

"When you put that many buses on the street, you exacerbate what is already a bad situation," she said.

Mac Daniel and Douglas Belkin of the Globe staff and Globe correspondents Sasha Talcott and Christine McDonald contributed to this report.