AUGUSTA — With so much snow that some two-lane streets are at risk of becoming one-lane alleys, and a blizzard expected to bring up to two more feet coming this weekend, capital area public works budgets, and workers, are stretched to their limits and in some cases beyond.
With February only halfway over, the city of Augusta has already used up its snow removal overtime budget for the winter and exceeded the year’s sand and salt budget with a recent order of $52,000 worth of salt.
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“We’ve got to keep the streets safe so that’s what we’re doing,” Augusta Public Works Director Lesley Jones said. “We hired contractors to come in and help with the snow removal. That costs about $50,000 a week and we had them this week and will likely need them next week too. We had to do it. Some of the side roads are so narrow, with all the snow, if you had a car on them, a firetruck wouldn’t have room to get by. We’re out again today, because there are still some big snowbanks out there.”
City Manager William Bridgeo said $720,000, or 80 percent, of Augusta’s $900,000 winter road maintenance budget, meant to cover 26 weeks, has been spent, but only 16 weeks of that time period has passed.
Sand and salt is sure to be flying this weekend, as a blizzard is expected to dump as much as two feet of snow in the area between Saturday and Sunday nights. The snow, according to the National Weather Service, will be accompanied by wind gusting to 40 to 50 miles per hour, near whiteout conditions and frigid single-digit temperatures.
“Your area is looking, for accumulations, at 18 to 24 inches,” Meteorologist Bob Marine said Friday, chuckling slightly. “A lot of people are saying they just can’t take any more.”
Marine said the high wind speeds, combined with heavy and drifting snow, will reduce visibility to less than a quarter of a mile.
“There will be near-whiteout conditions, so driving is going to be, at times, close to impossible,” he said. “And the cold is another thing. This is a very cold storm, with temperatures in the single digits. You don’t want to be outside with 45 mile per hour winds when it’s only five degrees out.”
The snow could start Saturday afternoon and by evening pick up and become heavy at times overnight, with heavy snow continuing into Sunday. By late Sunday afternoon the snow is expected to lessen, but snow could fall off and on into Sunday night.
Bridgeo said he advised Jones to focus on public safety and getting the job done and he will make a recommendation for a budget adjustment once things settle down and there is a better idea of what the city will need to finish the year. He said in the meantime, the city has enough money in the general fund to cover the additional snow removal costs for now.
“We maintain that balance for purposes just such as this miserable winter,” Bridgeo said. “I will wait until the worst of winter is behind us and prepare a recommendation for an adjustment to the (public works) budget.”
Officials in other central Maine municipalities also said their snow removal money has dwindled as the snow piles up.
Windsor Town Manager Theresa Haskell said there is still money left in the snow removal budget, but not much, and less than what usually remains at this time of year. She said if the snow keeps coming, and the money keeps flowing to deal with it, the town will have to consider delaying some planned spring public works projects, to save money to cover the cost of snow removal on Windsor’s 45 miles of roads.
“I always try to budget for the worst winter, but this has been the hardest one we’ve had in a long time,” she said, noting 66 percent of the town’s public works budget for the fiscal year has been spent, with about six months to go. “If we keep getting this much snow, we may have to hold off on some projects in the spring, to keep from going over budget.”
She said the budget for plow truck drivers already is overspent. The town hires drivers to plow with two large town trucks and a smaller truck, and also hires a contractor to do one plow route. She said the town has three loads of salt left, at a time of year when it would normally have 10 loads remaining. She said the sand supply is in good shape because the town has sand left in its shed from previous winters.
Michael Starn, Hallowell city manager, said the small city has not yet exceeded its snow removal budget for the year, but has spent more than it typically would have this early in the season.
“This year we’re running over by about 20 or 30 percent on sand, and we still have a little money left for salt,” Starn said. “We’ll probably end up running over in both those accounts, and that’s $40,000 of our $70,000 winter budget.”
He said as of the end of January, Hallowell had only used about half of its budgeted overtime money. Spending on overtime, he noted, is limited as much by the need to give drivers a rest as it is by the funds available.
“We only have four guys and, honestly, they can only go so far, at some point you have to take them off the road and give them some rest,” Starn said. “We’re a little over budget but it is not a significant issue as yet. We are over where we should be for this time of year.”
Jones joked that any plans Augusta public works employees had to go fishing this weekend are off.
She said crews that remove snow from the city’s 300 miles of road are tired from long, odd hours, not just during storms, but also wremoving plowed snow after storms to make room for what the next storms may bring.
“We’ve been right at it since Jan. 27,” Jones said. “They’re tired. It’s not a typical work shift, it’s all kinds of wacky hours, and you don’t get a lot of time off in between. We try to get them 10 hours off, so they have a chance to get home and get some sleep.”
Among the snow removal work that takes place after storms is clearing deep, compacted snow from sidewalks. Jones said Augusta made a big push this week, using two sidewalk plows, to clear sidewalks on one side of most streets so pedestrians have a place to walk so they are not in traffic.
“I’ve got a big concern with pedestrians walking in the street, especially where the lanes are narrow anyway,” she said.
Gov. Paul LePage, in a press release Friday, said the state of emergency he declared on Jan. 27 remains in effect, giving legal authority for any emergency actions that may be necessary. That declaration, he said, relaxes some limits on the number of hours some drivers may work, allowing, for example, fuel delivery drivers to work extended hours if needed.
The Maine Emergency Management Agency held a conference call with the National Weather Service, county emergency management agencies, state agencies and utility companies to review the latest forecast and share plans for the storm. And MEMA officials were also directed by the governor to inventory privately owned heavy snow removal equipment and other resources that may be available to municipalities to assist in snow removal.
The governor’s press release warned the heavy snow and high wind have the potential to be even stronger than the Jan. 27 blizzard, and power outages are a concern.
“Watch for the most up-to-date forecast, keep yourself safe and reach out to a neighbor who needs a helping hand,” LePage said in the release.
Though it is early to be able to tell for sure, another snowstorm is possible Wednesday, though Marine said Friday it appeared the storm would remain out at sea and, if it does, wouldn’t likely bring more than light snow.
Officials urged residents to remain patient and cooperative with each other and public works crews, something they acknowledged can be hard for everyone to do right after a plow may have pushed snow back into their driveways after they thought they’d finished shoveling.
“The snowbanks had encroached on the travel way so we have to go and push it back to the side of the road, so some people’s walks and driveways got filled back in, which some people aren’t happy about,” Starn said. “In general I think people appreciate the work public works does, but they’re not as forgiving when you plow snow back into their driveways. Crews are working hard, I hope people appreciate that. We all have to work on this together.”
Keith Edwards — 621-5647
kedwards@centralmaine.com
Twitter: @kedwardskj
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