There may be just enough snow on the ski slopes to appease tourist and locals, but the white stuff, along with the usual scraping noise of the snowplows is noticeably absent from the streets and yards.
According to Summit County Public Works Director Kevin Callahan, snowplowing has been minimal so far this winter, but it is still too soon to tell if that will result in savings for the county. The Public Works budget which covers snowplowing and year round road maintenance for 2012 is $8.5 million.
Summit County’s budget year just began on Jan. 1 and while the past three days have been snowplow-free, Callahan expects service levels to resume to normal in a few weeks and last into the spring.
“While the beginning of the winter in 2011 was light, we were snowplowing late into April and then working overtime because of the spring and summer flooding that occurred. So it evened out last year,” Callahan said. “We have our standard fixed costs we are paying with snow or no snow, but our snowplow drivers are hourly so that has been a reduced cost.”
Callahan added that if the dry winter season continues, the Public Works department will save money on equipment maintenance and staffing, but overall, the county will lose revenue.
“If there is no snow, there won’t be as many tourists and the county will lose a lot in taxes and even Public Works will lose money in road maintenance fees,” he said. “We have been keeping our employees busy by repairing things that we never had time to fix during the fall when we were busy with road construction.”
Callahan said the county is always prepared for heavy storms in the winter and began stockpiling road salt in October.
“We have used the seasonal lull to get things done and transport salt from Redmond, Utah ourselves,” he said, adding that once the snow hits, which it will, the snowplows will be ready to go.