| Winter blows snow clearing budget |
| By Morgan Ian Adams |
| Enterprise-Bulletin (Tue, January 16, 2000) |
| COLLINGWOOD - December's winter winds not only brought
record snowfall, but also blew the top off the town's snow clearing
budget. |
| According to works department boss Ed Houghton, December's
record amount of snow resulted in the budget for snow clearing going over
by 25-to-30 percent. |
| In 2000, between plowing ($80,000), removal ($110,000), and
sanding and salting ($47,000), the town budgeted about $240,000. |
| On Monday, Houghton estimated the town will have spent
about $300,000-$320,000 on dealing with the snow for 2000. By the
end of November, only $190,000 had been spent out of the budget for snow
clearing. |
| That includes the $10,700 cost of cleaning up downtown after
a major snowfall - something the work's department has now had to do about
three times this season. |
| "December killed us," Houghton said.
"I'm just sitting here signing invoices, and I have one for $5,000 -
and that's just one contractor. |
| "Up until December, we were in pretty good
shape." |
| Houghton, and Mayor Terry Geddes, both acknowledged the
town - and the rest of Ontario - have been blessed with some fairly easy
winters, snowfall-wise, over the last three or four years. |
| "This snowstorm caught us in a situation where most of
the province wasn't ready for it," Geddes said. "The fact
this entire municipality shut down tells you the enormity of (the amount
of snow that fell), and I understand that a record amount of snow (has
fallen) in the province. |
| "We need to be more on alert for such a thing." |
| Houghton said the lower snowfalls probably translated into
smaller budgets to do the job over the years, leaving the town
ill-prepared financially. |
| He added he plans on sitting down and attempting to
forecast when the rest of the winter season will be like, so he can plan
his budget better, "so I don't have to ask (council for money) every
two weeks." |
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