The figures are finally in and the great snow dumps of winter past have left their nasty mark on the town's budget.
Craig Teal, the town's director of planning and operational services, told town council at its regular meeting on June 23 the town has already spent more than three times its budget for snow removal in 2014.
In his report to council, Teal said the town had budgeted $20,000 in 2014 for contract services, money needed to pay for additional equipment, the hiring of operators and to rent equipment for town staff.
He said the total spending in 2014, from Jan. 1 to March 31, to remove snow from streets, transport it to snow dumps and to maintain the snow dump area, through renting equipment and the hiring of operators, is $71,265.
“It is not fair to say that the $71,000 is the cost of everything. There are other costs,” said Teal, noting there was also an estimated $156,000 worth of staff time that was already built into the budget and devoted to snow removal activity.
He acknowledged that snow accumulations for last November and December were particularly heavy, and that $29,000 was spent from the $40,000 budget for 2013. However, costs kept climbing into the first months of 2014, said Teal.
“As we went into January and February we were spending more to move our snow into piles. It is not that we didn't get any snow after December. We certainly did get more going into January and February,” he said. “Into January we were still pushing up the piles, and loading it out from boulevards. They were jammed-packed. We were pushing it up in anticipation of more snow coming. That is when we brought in more contractors and more trucks.”
Following Teal's report on June 23, council approved his request for a budget adjustment of $65,000 for funding from the town's operating contingency fund, monies that will cover the past winter's snow removal contracting costs and leave $13,734.97 in the budget for contracted services for this coming November and December, if it is required.
Council was also told that last winter's snow accumulations, the heaviest in more than a decade, also had a significant physical effect on staff members who were asked to work long overtime hours for weeks without pause.
“Some of the staff were getting the equipment ready to go as early as 5:30 a.m. and hitting the road by 6:30 a.m. to beat the traffic, and they would go until 5 p.m. to open up the roads as much as possible,” said Teal.
“Unfortunately those snowfalls did not come nicely during the Monday-to- Friday workdays. They hit us on Saturdays and Sundays.
“People were putting in more than their usual 40-hour workweek, and not having enough time for themselves, family time or other things they have to deal with in their lives,” he added. “There was only so far we could go until we had some negative impacts on our staff.”
