Groundworks

About Groundworks

Franklin begins where the Pemigewasset meets the Winnipesaukee and the Merrimack carries their name onward. Groundworks is out on those streets at three in the morning after a storm, plowing the mill blocks and the hill roads before the first shift moves. There is a particular pleasure in the last pass — the driveway squared off, the walk cleared down to pavement, no ridge left across the apron for anyone to fight at seven. Snow arrives here in whatever form the valley hands over: dry powder off the north, heavy wet slabs when the track runs up the coast. Both get moved, and the city gets its day back.