Town Snow Budgets Tested Following Busy Four Days

Before Thursday of last week, cities and towns were feeling pretty good about where they stood when it came to paying for snow removal.

There were two notable weekend snow storms that led to accumulation but outside of those two, there weren't many severe weather events that were notable.

Fast forward to Thursday morning and municipalities got a wake-up call.

“These past 96 hours, we experienced a lot of snowpack on our roads, a lot of challenges with slushing up from the warmer temperatures on Friday, so it’s just a continuation and continuation of clearing and treating, clearing and treating," said John Phillips, the Director of the West Hartford Department of Public Works.

West Hartford sets money aside in its budget to cover the costs associated with 17 or 18 storms every year.

Town Manager Ron Van Winkle said the speed and intensity of the snow that hit between Thursday and Sunday made up for lost time in the fiscal year.

“Up until a few days ago, winter was going really well," Van Winkle said. “We were hoping to run a surplus in our budget, now we’re running about where we normally expect.”

Phillips added that taxpayers' money goes to ensure roads are always in the best condition at a given moment, and said there have been numerous minor weather events that required a full commitment from the Department of Public Works, which includes 24 trucks, eight to ten contractor plows, and about a dozen parks employees clearing and treating parking lots.

Phillips with West Hartford DPW said, "We’ve been out almost a dozen times dealing with ice events or just little slushy events. That’s still overtime and that’s still treating the roads for a full application, whether that’s for an evening commute or a morning commute or both of them.”

In Simsbury, the town has already spent two thirds of its total overtime budget for snow removal, and one third of that came from Thursday to Sunday.

"There's winters we win and there's winters where we lose," said Tom Roy, the Director of Public Works for Simsbury.

He said the town bases its overtime budget on an eight-year average.

The town didn't spend much last Thursday, Roy said, because most of that storm hit Simsbury during normal working hours.

Simsbury First Selectman Lisa Heavner said town tax dollars go to good use during and after snow storms, which is why the streets are all completely plowed so quickly after Sunday's storm.

She said, "Nobody likes paying taxes, but at the local level when you pay your taxes, they go to everything you use every day.”

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