With the exception of Durham, most Androscoggin County towns on Friday confirmed that their winter road budgets are running in the red as they face yet another significant snowfall today.
“We’re ready for winter to be over,” said Mechanic Falls Town Manager Dana Lee. After buying two additional loads of salt over what was budgeted, Lee said the town is now out of salt and has no plans to purchase any more. “We’ll be using sand for the rest of the year,” mixing it with liquid calcium chloride, which promotes melting. The existing sand is mixed with salt.
Lee said the total public works budget has been exceeded by 12 percent, and the winter roads portion is about 28 percent over budget. “We’re tapped out.”
Lisbon still has an adequate supply of salt, but has already spent more than was allocated for the year.
Town Manager Curtis Lunt said $125,000 was budgeted for materials and labor, and so far $180,000 has been spent. A total of $45,000 was budgeted for salt, and so far “we’ve spent $90,000, and we’ll keep going until winter’s over.”
Labor overtime was budgeted at $32,000 and the town has spent $50,000 so far, he added.
Lunt said he knows the snow is good for snowmobile sales, skiing and other winter businesses, but it’s not for municipal services. “Usually we don’t spend all of the money allocated.”
Bruce Tufts, road foreman in Greene, said Friday that the town has “been hit hard. We’re expecting two loads of salt to come in today and we’ve been hauling sand all day.”
He too expects that his budget is going to be “way over,” although he has not calculated how much yet. In the last two weeks, he said, workers have been putting in about 60 hours a week.
In Sabattus, Road Commissioner Jim Wood says he knows his budget is overspent, but hasn’t calculated the figures yet.
In Durham, the town traditionally contracts with a private company for winter snow removal, which includes sand, and purchases salt, which is stockpiled in a 5,000-yard storage building.
Road Commissioner Cliff Larrabee Sr. said the town still has “about 150 tons of salt,” which should get it by this week. “After that, we’ll have to get into surplus.”
Larrabee said he was “shut off” from further salt purchases last week, and will not be able to get any more for this season.
Durham contracts with Larrabee Construction for winter snow removal and is in the second year of a three-year contract, said Administrative Assistant John White. The cost of the contract this year will be $237,400.
To date this year, the town has paid $84,191 for salt as compared to $34,756 at this time last year. However, as the town’s fiscal year is Jan. 1 through Dec. 31, splitting the winter into two budget years, White says the town is not over budget yet.
The contracted price for plowing and sanding is the same regardless of how many storms there are. Larrabee concedes that contracting is “a roll of the dice” but usually evens out.
In order to make the job easier, crews from Larrabee Construction were out Thursday and Friday with a bucket loader removing snowbanks near intersections throughout the town to make room for Saturday’s snowfall.
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