Mild Storm Cost Town $20K, Officials Confirm

February 19, 2010 by Josh Morgan

Despite being the blizzard that never was, which prompted apologies from meteorologists state wide, last week's storm still cost the Town nearly $20,000.
With the forecasts calling for a major Nor'easter on Feb. 10, Cheshire Public Works Department crews were readying for two long days of plowing and sanding Cheshire's roads. Workers began attaching plows and filling trucks with fuel and sand as early as Tuesday afternoon, 24-hours before the storm actually hit. And, while everyone including the experts were expecting more than a foot of snow, only to see a few inches fall throughout Connecticut, workers were still needed and still received overtime pay for their services.
"The storm was forecasted to come early in the morning but, as it turned it, it never started to snow, so our guys reported in at 7 a.m. as normal," explained Director of Public Works Joseph Michelangelo. "When it started to snow, the guys made one trip around town with salt on each mile of road."
According to Michelangelo, it costs approximately $8,000 to salt all the roads in preparation for a storm. During the normal hours of 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., workers get paid their standard salary, but if they work anytime before or after their shift, they receive time and a half pay. Michelangelo said that forecasters were still calling for massive snow accumulations, so workers stayed after 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 10, and into the early morning the next day. Overall, he said there was about 15.5 hours of overtime for each crew member, at a cost of approximately $10,000.
"The guys stayed on the clock because there were bits and pieces of snow throughout the evening," Michelangelo said. "Even though the storm was a dud in terms of prediction, it was still a pain-in-the-neck since it was spread out over a period of time and was slow moving and came later than expected."
Michelangelo admitted that, if it snowed during the normal business hours of the Public Works team, "we'd be better off," but still feels the snow budget could absorb the storms.
"We're still pretty good in terms of our budget," he said. "We still have salt in the shed, but we'll need to buy more. That doesn't go bad or get wasted, though."
The Town appropriated $244,000 for snow and ice removal this year.
Another storm hit early Monday morning and crews were called in around 3 a.m. to start clearing roads. Michelangelo said workers stayed after hours for the latest storm as well, since the snow kept coming.
When storms arrive, whatever projects the workers had scheduled are put on hold as road clearing becomes the top priority. Michelangelo said that, in the winter months, there aren't major road projects or drainage work to be done, so a lot of the employees work in Town buildings on maintenance and repair. For instance, Michelangelo said the lobby of Town Hall is scheduled to be painted, but has been put on the back burner because of the winter storms.
"It'll still get done, but those are the types of things that stop when the snow starts," Michelangelo said.