Mayor Frank Picozzi got yelled at Monday night.

Picozzi was behind the wheel of the city’s oldest plow, a 2001 Ford pickup that lacks a radio but more importantly has working heat. He was plowing a neighborhood not far from his home.

This was no publicity stunt. In fact, the media wasn’t alerted he would be called on to battle the storm. He reported at 10 p.m. and didn’t finish until after 3 a.m.

“They were short,” Picozzi said of Department of Public Works drivers. Crews from other departments also answered the call, but with personnel being on quarantine and vacancies left unfilled or eliminated by the prior administration, any additional drivers would be of help.

Picozzi doesn’t have a CDL license to drive one of the big plows, but as an independent contractor he’s more than familiar with smaller pickups.

Soon after taking office, Picozzi visited the DPW and said he wanted to be called in to snowplow.

Eric Earls, DPW director, said Tuesday they didn’t have to call Picozzi. He called early in the evening, “but we didn’t have a truck for him.” But when one became available, they gave him a call.

“It was a weird event,” Earls said of the storm that was forecast to start earlier than it did and dump up to 6 inches of mushy snow on parts of the city. As it turned out, Cowesett probably got the worst of it with 6 inches, whereas neighborhoods near the bay ended up with a couple of inches if anything stuck at all.

“It was so sloppy. It was a mess,” Earls said of conditions.

Overall, he said that between city crews and contractors, there were 44 pieces of equipment clearing city roads.

“It was citywide; all hands on deck,” he said.

Assisting in the effort were crews from the water, sewer, and parks and recreation departments. Some sanitation drivers drove plows, but were released before it got too late as they would be doing their sanitation and recycling routes starting first thing the following morning.

As of Tuesday morning, Earls said cleanup operations were in full swing. The rising temperatures helped as much of the slop turned to water. With nighttime temperatures dropping, he warned motorists to be on the watch for black ice. He’s keeping an eye on the weekend forecast of another storm that for the moment looks to be a rainstorm.

“We’re tracking it. Fingers crossed,” he said.

Picozzi said he plowed to the music of his phone, except for one interruption.

He believes he was plowing Sprague Avenue when a resident, angered that a ridge of snow was left in his drive, yelled at him. Picozzi stopped and was berated with some “salty” words for what he had done, along with the threat that the resident would be calling the city to complain.

Lowering his mask, Picozzi said that would be him. Recognizing the mayor, the man was embarrassed.

Picozzi cleared the snow from the drive.

Will the mayor notice a difference in his paycheck?

“He’s exempt … no overtime for the mayor,” Earls said.