Dropping temperatures in big blizzard turn roads slick by evening

February 19, 2010
by Christine Yeres

Tuesday’s storm was deceptive.  While it looked blizzardy, previous salting plus favorable ground temperatures managed to help keep snow dissolving on roadways for much of the day. By 6:00 p.m. though, temperatures dropped, and New Castle police warned residents through http://local.nixle.com/register/” title=“Nixle.com”>Nixle.com by email and blackberry of perilous black ice, advising them to proceed with extreme caution.  To register for Nixle, click http://local.nixle.com/register/” title=“HERE”>HERE.  See “Read more” for mid-winter status report on New Castle’s salt stores and overtime costs.

According to Department of Public Works Commissioner Anthony Vaccaro, to date this winter, his salt stores are down by about half.  “I estimate that we started with 1,000 tons in our salt shed,” said Vaccaro, “beginning in November. We ordered 2,000 tons in January, the start of new budget year.  At about $66 per ton that’s $132 thousand spent.  We started with $250 thousand in our salt budget. I estimate we used 1,600 tons to date (Dec, Jan, and Feb) and still have about 1,400 tons currently in our salt shed.”  In January of 2009, one year ago, after starting with $200 thousand budgeted for salt, by January 30, 2009 DPW had only $60 thousand of it left.

Keeping track of the salt

“We have a loader operator who keeps track of how much he loads on each truck during each storm,” explained Vaccaro. “I implemented a system of posting these numbers after a storm so that truck operators can validate the data.  I use a conversion formula to change buckets to tons.  There is some variability such as moisture content that can effect actual weight, and human error such as how much is spilled in the salt shed, so these are reasonable estimates of actual usage.”

Overtime is underbudget so far this season

“We’ve used about $38,000 out of our $135,000 budget for overtime,” reported Vaccaro. At end-of-January last year, the town has already spent $100,000 of the $160,000 budgeted for overtime for snow removal.  Once the remainder of these budgeted monies are spent, additional snow removal and overtime expenses will come from road repair monies, as happened last year. 

“As of now,” he continued, “I’d say we are in a very good position in both categories. But our budget has to last through to next December.  Although things seem to be going well, I am reluctant to crow too loudly.  We’ve been fortunate, but weather conditions and circumstances can still change. Lets keep our fingers crossed. However, our employees have been doing a exemplary job and I believe that they truly appreciate the costs associated with overtime and salt usage, and that they have been very conscientious about their performance.  We have a great crew.”

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