Snow knocks the stuffing out of town budgets
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
Referring to Storm Benjamin as “the disaster that keeps on giving,” Pomfret First Selectman Maureen Nicholson said this last storm just about exhausted the town’s DPW overtime budget.
She said “It’s exhausting for the crews. They clean up, then more clean up, and then more clean up and then … black ice. It’s the disaster that keeps on giving.”
And the story is much the same in Putnam. Town Administrator Elaine Sistare said the overtime budget will probably hit 90 percent used when last week’s storm costs come through the town’s finance office. And town officials are cognizant of the fact that there are several other events coming for Putnam, including Fire & Ice and Beautification Day which will require some help from a now-thin overtime budget.
“We’re closer to the limit than we’d like to be,” she said.
Storm Benjamin hit hardest on a Sunday which is overtime for the crews. Sistare praised Travis Sirrine, highway superintendent, for his foresight in keeping the town’s salt shed filled. Many Connecticut towns are experiencing a shortage on salt.
The amount of salt that is used, she said, depends on the type of storm. If it’s a long-running snow storm, the plows have to go out three, four, five times rather than just once for a short storm. Crews do different types of treatment with different types of storms. A storm like Storm Benjamin required more salt.
“He (Sirrine) and his crews are doing a wonderful job,” she added.
Sirrine said the town has about 65 miles of roads, many parking lots. He said the Board of Education gets the salt they use from the town’s stockpile “and we usually salt their driveways for them.” Sirrine said there are 14 employees including himself.
Nicholson said Pomfret’s DPW has five in its crew. This is one of the line items in a town’s budget that requires a crystal ball. Nicholson said budget makers will start trimming because for the last several years there hasn’t been much snow. She said the line item was coming back with a balance, “so we trim.”
Budget season will be here before you know it. As Nicholson said: Does a town add more or “gamble again”?
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Piles of snow at the old armory in Putnam. Linda Lemmon photo.
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