LIVERMORE – Another 1,000 yards of sand has been ordered to replenish the sand pile used for winter maintenance on the town’s roads.

R.S. Pidacks of Livermore agreed to provide the sand, deliver it and build the pile, mixing it with road salt, for $5 per yard, which is what the town paid in 2007, administrative assistant, Kurt Schaub said.

Earlier in the season the town had ordered 3,000 yards of sand.

The $27,000 salt budget is in good shape, with $19,000 worth of salt used so far, Schaub added.

About $16,000 of the $21,000 fuel budget has been spent.

“Our three full-timers in the Highway Department take some of their overtime compensation in the form of comp time and they’ve all worked their limits,” Schaub said.

The town is now paying them straight overtime at time and a half, which he anticipates will push the wage account to the limit.

On the positive side, Schaub said repairs are being kept to a minimum, with one single-axle dump truck down for a good portion of the day during a storm on Feb. 5 and some minor repairs on other vehicles.

The repair account is about half of what was spent at this time last year.

“We credit our crew with maintaining equipment very well, which results in lower repairs costs and less downtime during snow,” Schaub said. “The (select) board has been incredibly grateful for the job highway foreman Moe Laverdierre and crew have done.”

The amount of snow is straining everybody, he said. Snow is piled high and people have no place to put it.

The town has encountered people pushing snow across the roads, which is against the law, not to, Schaub said. He’s also had reports of vehicles parked on the side of roads hindering snow removal. That’s another no-no, he said.

Vehicles need to be off the roads so snow can be plowed.

Local contractors will be used to help with snow removal.

Usually, the town crew would already be doing some snow removal but there has been so much snow to plow they haven’t had time to get to it, Schaub said.