Residents might be happy to have only reached for their shovel or primed their snow blower less this winter, but local officials are pleased their salt reserves are piled high.
Municipalities throughout Schenectady County haven’t spread road salt nearly as much as previous winters and dramatically less than last winter’s budget stressing demands. As the official start of spring nears on Tuesday, March 20, local officials are optimistic salt reserves will remain plentiful before next winter. The colder months also tend to see the largest boost in overtime for employees, with roads demanding to be plowed before morning or evening commutes. This winter, overtime savings are allowing municipalities to look outside normal budget restrictions.
“I don’t recall any other winter except back in the 80s like this one,” Rotterdam Highway Superintendent James Longo said. “It has been absolutely amazing,”
Rotterdam typically uses around 300 tons of road salt during the winter, said Longo, which is budgeted around $95,000 for the year. The town still has to face the early months of winter near the end of the year, but Longo estimated so far the town has saved $50,000 to $55,000.
Glenville is looking at reaping even higher savings, which Commissioner of Public Works and Highway Superintendent Thomas Coppola estimated to be around $70,000. To date, Coppola said Glenville has only used a third of its salt that is budget around $140,000.
“This year was extremely light so I will load our shed next year and start our December season with a full shed … to us that is huge,” Coppola said.
Glenville plows only went out around six to seven times this year, he said, but some winters have seen the plows leaving 30 to 40 times a year.
Scotia Superintendent of Public Works Andrew Kohout faced his first winter season and said the village used less salt this winter thanks to a mild February.
“In the month of January we did go out and salt nine to 10 times, which is a pretty standard,” Kohout said, “but our amount of plowing has been significantly less.”
Salt savings were a welcomed bonus, but overtime savings were significant, too.
Last winter stressed Rotterdam’s budgeted funds, Longo said, with his department going over salt and barely having enough money to cover overtime. This winter, he said there was “tremendous” savings in overtime.
“We barely touched our overtime budget,” Longo said.
Any leftover money allotted for salaries would be placed into the highway fund balance, which he wants to earmark to buy new equipment.
“I’m always trying to rotate equipment,” he said.
Coppola said Glenville received similar overtime savings like Rotterdam. The winter months usually account for his departments overtime and fuel costs.
“It is a snowball effect of savings,” Coppola said. “Fortunately, Mother Nature blessed us this year with some good weather.”
Coppola said his department exceeded the budgeted amount for salt last year by about $14,000, but managed to keep overtime at the allotted amount.
Also, he said plow related repairs, such as top soil and land seeding, will also be much less this year. When there is a large snowfall, he said plows push snow banks back and can rip up chunks of sod.
Glenville crews also have an early start to spring and summer repairs this year too. Crews have been able to complete storm basin work that will allow for road paving beginning sooner.
“No paving will be done until everything is 100 percent under the blacktop,” he said. “Our paving program is not that expensive, we don’t have a lot of money for paving, so the paving we do we really have to take a look at.”
For this year, Glenville is looking at paving 11 roads totaling about seven miles of paving, Coppola said. Town roads are rated from one to 10, he said, so roads rated six can be paved and treated to bring it up to a nine rating. This work would preserve the roadway for another 10 years, he said.
Kohout said Scotia has also been able to work on projects normally done after winter. He said the village was able to repair most of the flood damage it received during Tropical Storm Irene, so the normal spring workload wouldn’t be delayed.
“If it was bitter cold and no snow we would be very limited on what we could do outside,” he said. “The winter has been helpful because a lot of the stuff we have been able do over the winter would have taken place during early spring on top of the normal park maintenance.”
Longo still remained cautious to declare the winter officially over yet.
“I have been here for 38 years and I have plowed snow in April,” he said.
