How Much Has This Winter Cost Tewksbury?
There has been a great deal of snow and ice to remove this winter. What's the price tag?
Plows are trying to keep the parking lot clear at Market Basket, early Wednesday.
Patrick Holloway
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Question: Seems like we've had a lot of snowstorms this winter. How much has the town spent on snow and ice removal and salting and sanding? How bad will this impact the budget?
Answer: This has, indeed, been a nasty winter and the bill is steep.
According to Town Manager Richard Montuori, $241,000 was earmarked in the Fiscal Year 2013 Budget for snow and ice removal. Prior to Monday's storm, the town had spent $637,060 on snow and ice removal, creating a deficit of $399,110. According to Montuori, Monday's storm might add as much as $50,000 to that total.
Under normal circumstances, this would create budgetary problems, as the deficit would have to be paid for out of the Fiscal Year 2014 Budget. However, Montuori also set aside $600,000 in certified free cash this past fall to be used for any snow and ice removal deficit. So the town might even be able to pay for another storm, should winter not actually be over yet.
malcolm nichols
9:44 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
So we can't complain? Well then let's bitch about the fire station somemore.
sarah
11:45 am on Friday, March 22, 2013
How is it that they never have enough money to cover the winter expenses? Maybe they should plan better! It seems like this is happens ever year.
SoxFan
6:26 pm on Friday, March 22, 2013
Every town under-budgets for snow/ice, due to the way municipal budgets work. I don't know all the specifics, but basically they can move money around to cover snow/ice deficits, but if they over-budget for storms, the money is lost. Because winter can be so unpredictable, they budget for minimum, that way no money is lost.
Mike Roberts
6:49 am on Saturday, March 23, 2013
We had the same basic discussion last year when we had a light winter and a story was posted regarding leftover monies. Tewksbury budgets the $2xxk every year and then deficit spends during the year. At the end of the season it uses free cash to clean up.
We need to have a true budget number in place and will say contrary to SoxFan's comment, town money is not "lost." This is true with Boston's DPW snow and ice removal budget that goes back into the general fund as a surplus for the year.