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THE OBSERVER | Saturday, December 06, 2008
Early snow taxes townships’ road-clearing budgets
Both Woolwich and Wellesley find themselves plowing through their 2008 snow-removal funds
MARC MIQUEL HELSEN
After a long and snowy
winter in 2008, township
works crews in both
Woolwich and Wellesley
are bracing themselves
as they grapple with
winter snow removal
budgets that are already
nearing the red zone.
“I would have happily
waited until December
some time for the snow
to come, even regardless
of the budget,” said Barry
Baldasaro, operations
supervisor for Woolwich
Township, noting the
municipality is $100,000
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over its 2008 budget.
Township road crews
got an early taste of winter
last month, as they
hit the streets to remove
snow as early as mid-November.
It was a similar situation
in Wellesley.
“I would say we’ve got
to be pretty close to the
wire right now as far as
the end of the budget;
I think we had about
$18,000 two weeks ago
and I’m pretty sure that’s’
gone; we’re likely right
on the wire right now,”
said Will McLaughlin,
public works director
for Wellesley Township.
Owing to the heavy winter
in the early part of
2008 – which heaped record
amounts of snow
on the region – coupled
with an early arrival of
winter this November,
work crews in Woolwich
and Wellesley are
already facing tappedout
snow removal budgets.
In 2008, Woolwich budgeted
$518,000 for snow
removal and Wellesley
township spent approximately
$204,000 to keep
its roadways clean.
A single Sunday snowstorm
last year cost the
township $26,000; it costs
the municipality approximately
$210 per hour
to run each of its eight
vehicles, which on such
a job, would have been
working simultaneously.
The fact that both
townships are now tapping
the final dregs of
their snow removal budgets
doesn’t come as a
surprise: snow removal
budgets are often expended
by March, leaving
a shortfall for the
tail-end of the year in
November or December.
Neither McLaughlin
nor Baldasaro is in panic
mode, however.
Both administrations
possess reserves in their
overall works budgets to
cover the costs of freak
winter years. Their
snow-clearing budgets
» From page 05
wards supporting Guiding
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Girl Guide cookies
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HOURS OF OPERATION
Monday to Tuesday..............9:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
Wednesday to Friday...........9:30 a.m. - 9:00 p.m.
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PHOTO | submiTTeD
SNoW Job A township truck plows snow from Hackbart road near Ament line after a heavy snowfall in march of
last year. both Wellesley and Woolwich townships have already expended their snow-removal budgets for 2008.
are based on a rolling
average: five years in
Woolwich, 10 in Wellesley.
Consequently, an isolated
brutal winter is no
reason to fret.
“In council’s mind,
we’re still okay, in the big
picture,” said McLaughlin.
“In the small picture,
yes, the snow [budget] is
over; in the big picture
for public works, no,
we’re not over budget.”
That said, both
McLaughlin and Bal-
dasaro are hoping for a
kinder, gentler winter
with fewer snow days
this season.
“We’re going to hold
our breath; we do that
every year,” quipped
McLaughlin.
Whether a massive
deluge or just a minor
flurry, snow removal is a
challenging procedure
In fact, it is often the
minor snow falls that
pose the greatest problems.
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“Sometimes the little
one inch dumps that
don’t sound like they’re
very much – the problem
with those is that they
kind of get packed down
really quick and they
polish up and turn to ice.
In some respects they’re
more treacherous than
three inches of snow,”
said Baldasaro.
“You can’t ignore anything
… any amount of
snow you pretty well
have to do something.”
have been produced in a
nut-free, peanut-free bakery
by Canadian-owned
company Dare Foods
Ltd., which started in
Kitchener in 1892.