Snow removal staying under budget

Colorado Springs street crews should be able to keep roads clear of snow and ice for the rest of the year without asking the City Council for more money, officials said Tuesday.

The city set aside $380,000 for snow removal this year, and last week officials raised the possibility of seeking more money after several storms blanketed the region this month.

The city's budget year starts Jan. 1, so it's normal for the snow-removal funds to be nearly exhausted by now. Every few years, depending on the weather, the Street Division seeks additional money to bridge a budget gap until Jan. 1.

"It's just the way the events line up," spokeswoman Carrie McCausland said. "It can be one big storm, or it can be a series of smaller storms that stick around for a while."

The last time the Street Division asked for extra money was in December 2006, when a blizzard dumped 9 inches of snow on Colorado Springs and up to 30 inches in nearby areas. McCausland said she didn't know how much extra money the division got.

The snow-removal budget doesn't include money for overtime wages for plow drivers and others who have to work long hours during a storm. That comes from a separate $150,000 fund that covers emergency responses of all kinds such as after-hours calls to crime scenes and fires. The city still is compiling information on the latest storm, so it's unknown how much overtime was required.

Snow removal can be costly - a storm that started Thanksgiving cost $83,385 to clean up, according to a Street Division estimate.

With 14 days left in 2008, there's probably no need for more money this year, said Division Manager Saleem Khattak. The city got its first deliveries Tuesday from an order of 500 tons of anti-skid material for the roads. The material, called Ice Slicer, costs $98 per ton for a cost of $49,000.

A storm that started Sunday and brought record-low temperatures was winding down, too. The city's major roads were clear after the Street Division deployed all 54 of its plows. A resident was so pleased with the city's snow cleanup that he delivered a batch of fudge to the crews Tuesday. It happens once in a while, said Bill Moritz, a program supervisor for the agency.

"Every now and then somebody gets on that, and they'll bring in something and say ‘Thank you for all your hard work.' It's really appreciated," he said.

Other residents aren't as complimentary. Callers to the Street Division routinely ask why their residential streets haven't been plowed. The city plows 45 priority routes, and work on smaller streets happens on an as-needed basis, McCausland said. But snow on a street doesn't necessarily mean it needs to be plowed, she said. Crews look out for unsafe conditions, sometimes plowing snow and other times dropping anti-skid material.

The number to call to request work on a street is 457-7669.

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Contact the writer: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com