Snowstorms Slowly Depleting Budget, Making Roads Unsafe
By Robin Vinci | Editor at February 12, 2024 | 6:00 pm | Print
If snow continues to fall the City may soon begin looking to the contingency fund to add more money in the budget for storms this season.
The snow budget for 2014-15 is $471,000. Of that $450,000 is for overtime, salt, and a little bit of sand.
“After this storm we are through 90 percent of our storm budget,” said Mayor Erin Stewart on Monday. “This is why we keep money in the contingency fund.”
There are over $4 million in contingency funds available.
“There is no choice. The snow budget is the average of the past 5 years,” said Mark Moriarty, public works director. “We spent more than budgeted this year, but some years we spend half of what is budgeted. It was a reasonable amount that was budgeted, but this is year is severe.”
New Britain has seen at least five storms in late January until present that have brought at least 6 inches of snow. One was Blizzard Juno that brought 9-12 inches of snow. Several other storms also brought close to a foot of snow.
“We are starting to deal with roads that are narrowing. The next 10 day forecast is for about 5” more storm predicted. It is a cause for concern and we are looking at widths that is beyond normal plowing,” said Moriarty. “A few years ago we had to take a front end loader and move snow out of streets. We have done a little bit of that downtown, but not in neighborhoods yet.”
Moriarty reminds residents that even if there is no parking ban they should use common sense and see if there is enough room to park on both sides of the street.
“A car needs to be able to go through the street,” said Moriarty.
City ordinance requires sidewalks to be cleaned within six hours of daylight following a storm. Problems that are called in either directly to the public works or Mayor’s Office are being relayed to the appropriate departments and being addressed as staffing allows.
Verbal warnings have been issued for not shoveling sidewalks. The fine is $50 per day.
There has been no structural damage in the City due to the large amounts of snow. But there have been two fires and the weather did impact the response time, said Fire Marshall Donald King.
“The main amount of snow has fallen on Mondays like clockwork,” said King. “It is up to owners to clean the fire hydrants.”
Fire companies have gone out to locate fire hydrants and shoveled them out to avoid issues.
“In a fire, a matter of minutes or second can save a life,” said King. “The landscape changes with the snow.”
Another problem throughout the City has been pipes freezing and bursting. It has happened in both vacant and occupied buildings.
According to American Red Cross the following are ways to protect your homes from freezing conditions.
• Keep garage doors closed if there are water supply lines in the garage.
• Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow warmer air to circulate around the plumbing. Be sure to move any harmful cleaners and household chemicals up out of the reach of children.
• When the weather is very cold outside, let the cold water drip from the faucet served by exposed pipes. Running water through the pipe - even at a trickle - helps prevent pipes from freezing.
• Keep the thermostat set to the same temperature both during the day and at night. By temporarily suspending the use of lower nighttime temperatures, you may incur a higher heating bill, but you can prevent a much more costly repair job if pipes freeze and burst.
• If you will be going away during cold weather, leave the heat on in your home, set to a temperature no lower than 55° F.
• Consider relocating exposed pipes to provide increased protection from freezing.
• Add insulation to attics, basements and crawl spaces. Insulation will maintain higher temperatures in these areas.
