WORCESTER, Mass. - For Central Mass. DPWs, its been a busy few weeks. Snowstorms and ice last week will surely be followed by an outbreak of potholes with a winter warm up in the coming days.

Worcester's new DPW Commissioner jumped headfirst into his new duties. John Westerling has served a number of municipalities throughout Massachusetts, including his hometown of Holden as well as nearby West Boylston. He's now serving a city of more than 200,000 residents. He says he's ready for that jump. But, with the recent snow storms, he's also had to get his hands dirty right away.

"We spread over 1,500 tons of salt and over a thousand of sand," Westerling said in a sit-down interview with Spectrum News 1 Tuesday. "So, we had to play catchup with Mother Nature, making sure that we were removing the snow. That we did our best to remove the sleet."

Westerling is filling the void left by former commissioner Jay Fink. Retired commissioner Bob Moylan filled during an interim period.

Working only his sixth day as commissioner Tuesday, Westerling has already laid out a number of goals for Worcester DPW.

"Providing adequate, potable water to meet the city's needs," he said. "Ensuring our roads are clean of snow during storms but also safe and we have a reconstruction program in place. Sanitation: making sure that the trash is clean from the curbside."

It's a question Westerling and his predecessors get every year: what are you going to do about potholes in the city? The up-and-down temperatures certainly don't help. But less than a week in, and Westerling says it's a top priority.

"The water that gets into the cracks, it freezes and creates potholes," Westerling described. "So, it's really a challenge with as you said, hundreds of miles of road, we go out every day doing our best to fill as many as we can."

Westerling says he's still getting his hands dirty when it comes to looking at the overall needs for the city of Worcester. But he did point to two things. He says there needs to be an improvement in manpower as well as equipment for Worcester's DPW.