Severe winter weather is taking its toll on road budgets for Wellington municipalities and the county.
Wellington County operations manager Paul Johnson said he expects road maintenance costs will be up in 2014. The county budgeted $4.3 million for road maintenance this year and in January and February alone has already spent $2.7 million ($1.4 million in February).
Johnson explained the budget runs from January to January so there is about $1.6 million remaining. Whether the county stays within budget will depend on any severe storms that might impact the county in the next couple of months and what happens towards the end of the year.
“After the first two months of 2014, we are already 60 per cent expended for the year in winter control,” Johnson said in an email. “[It has been] very bad for our books so far.”
Wellington North CAO Mike Givens said the township spent $165,000 on snow removal and road maintenance from Jan. 1 to Feb. 28, compared to $84,500 spent during the same time last year.
“Winter maintenance is an essential service,” Givens said. “We provide it at an extremely high standard and the costs associated with it fluctuate year to year.”
Givens said the township’s 2014 budget will be adjusted to reflect winter maintenance costs, “meaning there will be less budget dollars for other public works programs.”
In Minto, heavy snow clearing costs combined with multiple ice and wind storms in the past 12 months have resulted in not only higher snow removal, but higher tree maintenance costs says treasurer Gordon Duff.
“This caused municipalities to devote both financial resources and staff and machines to coping with the weather instead of attending to more routine and preventive maintenance tasks,” stated Duff in an email to the Advertiser.
As of March 5, Duff said 2014 snow removal and plowing costs were at $188,000 out of a draft annual budget of $450,000.
However, he noted there will be more bills to come for expenses incurred so far this winter and early spring.
“On the tree side of things, there is much left to do to clean up the damage from the April, July and December 2013 ice and wind storms, as well as whatever the March winds bring to us,” said Duff.
2013 figures paint a clear picture of the financial impact of severe weather in Minto. Last year the town budgeted a total of $474,600 for: snow removal and plowing ($291,400), emergency management and storm cleanup ($700), salt and sand ($124,000) and tree cutting and maintenance ($58,500).
Actual expenditures on those items ended up at $840,000, with snow removal and plowing coming in at $438,449, emergency management and storm cleanup at $91,879, salt and sand at $192,880 and tree cutting and maintenance at $117,681.
In 2012, actual spending on the same budget items totaled only $409,622, against a budget of $454,700.
Guelph-Eramosa
Guelph-Eramosa CAO Kim Wingrove said the township is tallying up its road maintenance costs for January and February.
“I don’t have final numbers for February yet as all invoices have not yet been received,” she said in an email to the Advertiser.
“The 2013 budget for the plowing, sanding and salting portion of winter maintenance was about $660,000 and for Jan./Feb. 2014 our estimate is that we will spend $410,000.”
Mapleton, Erin and Puslinch officials were unable to provide financial comparisons by press time.
Mapleton CAO Patty Sinnamon said the township has not compiled comparative statistics on winter maintenance costs this year, but noted “our sand and salt costs are way up, as is our diesel.”
Centre Wellington
In Centre Wellington, winter reserves in the budget (from previous years) have softened the impact of weather conditions in recent months.
Managing director of corporate services Wes Snarr said the township budgeted $1,156,400 in 2013 and ended up spending $1,387,836. The 2013 actual figures were up sharply from 2012, when the township budgeted $1,164,900, but spent only $740,738
In 2011, the township budgeted $1,135,000 for winter maintenance and spent $1,057,164.
As for 2014, Snarr stated “The previous year’s numbers are in the public domain. As current year financial results haven’t been reported, these are not in the public domain.
“Even if they were, at this point the actuals for winter control would appear to be materially low because they would be missing costs for sand and salt for which the township hasn’t processed charges.”
At Centre Wellington’s committee of the whole meeting on March 10, Mayor Joanne Ross-Zuj said the township is “getting a lot of questions” about its winter budget.
“Actually things are not looking that badly,” said Ross-Zuj, offering kudos to both the treasury and public works departments.
“You did some fine financing in preparation for this winter,” she said.
Despite facing unknowns, “because of good budgeting, we were able to come through this with not a heavy impact at all.”
She said the township experienced such a good winter last year, it created a good reserve and, “The impact is not going to be as severe as we thought.”
Councillor Walt Visser commented, “it’s not over yet.”
The mayor later stressed that in Centre Wellington the issue is not just about the snow, but what happens in the ensuing thaw.
“We have road conditions which are extremely dangerous,” said Ross-Zuj.
She added staff continue to monitor the roads, especially as the frost comes out of the ground and creates heaving. As a result, the mayor advised caution while driving on any of the roads because, “They all have potholes in them.”
But she noted township crews are trying to address the issue. “It’s going to be a rough spring.”
– With files from Kris Svela, Mike Robinson and Patrick Raftis
