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Tab for winter clean-up pricey

Jim Mann, of the Springfield Service Department, stands in the doorway of the salt barn looking over the city's salt supply Monday, March 15.

Bill Lackey/Bill Lackey Jim Mann, of the Springfield Service Department, stands in the doorway of the salt barn looking over the city's salt supply Monday, March 15.

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By Samantha Sommer, Staff Writer Updated 3:00 PM Tuesday, March 16, 2010

SPRINGFIELD — Spring can’t come soon enough for the city.

The multiple, long-lasting snow storms in February weren’t cheap or easy to clean up.

City Service Director Jim Mann estimated the five storms cost the city more than $217,000.

That includes nearly $64,000 for overtime, nearly $25,000 for fuel and about $129,000 for salt.

“February was a tough month. ... Based on our current budget situation, it’s probably one of the worst scenarios we could have had,” Mann said.

The city’s budget is bleak this year — it projects using about $1 million in rainy day funds to balance its books

It has cut more than 100 positions citywide through attrition in recent years, including about 19 that related to snow removal and equipment repairs. Five of those likely will be filled by next winter.

The type of storms added to the difficulty, most of which were drawn out for a few days and coupled with bitter cold that led to freezing.

That means the city exhausted its 14 front-line plow drivers and often ran through its 20 to 35 back-up drivers.

The back-ups are often utility workers, so they also have to deal with winter-related issues. One back-up driver plowed snow all night, then in the morning had to repair a water-main break.

“As these events continue and get extended, it just wears everybody down,” Mann said.

So far this winter, the city has used about 4,000 tons of salt and has about 1,500 to 2,000 tons left.

And that includes reduced salting of residential streets to save money. Had the city treated residential streets at the levels of a couple of years ago, Mann said it could have used 6,000 tons of salt.

The city has enough salt left to get through the rest of winter, he said, and will have to revisit the supply levels and salt budget in the fall.

Although it was a rough winter, Mann said the crews did a tremendous job.

“We can’t control Mother Nature and we have to respond to the events that occur,” Mann said. “It does stretch our resources as we get these back-to-back storms as our manpower has been cut back.”

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