City wish: Don’t let it snow
Barring a last-minute dumping of snow, the city will meet its snow-removal budget target for 2011.
With just a couple of days left before the calendar flips to a new year, the city has used about 95 per cent of the $1.8-million budget.
“Our best guess is we’re going to be bang on our budget this year,” said Jim McNeely, streets and internal-services manager.
That is worth celebrating, given the shape of the budget heading into the final months of the year.
The city used about 60 per cent of its funds fighting last spring’s snow, but the mild weather of the last few weeks kept costs down.
The snow-removal budget is based on a calender year and resets itself on Jan. 1.
Though the biggest hit to the snow-removal budget around this time of year comes from overtime if snow falls on a statutory holiday, crews for the most part weren’t busy during Christmas.
Employees were called out to sand and salt some roads in the Barnhartvale area on Boxing Day after a small amount of snow started to accumulate.
When the snow does eventually fall in heavier amounts, the city has a bare-pavement policy in place for arterial roads that should see them free of the white stuff within four hours of the final flake falling.
Collector roads are expected to be bare within 16 hours, while local roads won’t be bare, but may be treated with some plowing or sanding at stop signs.
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