Busy winter taxing budgets, road crews

The active winter weather pattern in western Massachusetts is taking a toll on some municipal budgets.

In Pittsfield, the city has responded to about 35 winter weather events so far this season. Roberto Morales is the city's commissioner of public utilities-and oversees snow and ice removal operations. He said they have already gone far over budget this winter clearing roadways.

"We are tracking...spending somewhere around $2 million and that's quite an increase from our budgeted amount of $900,000," Morales said.

Municipalities are allowed to deficit spend on snow and ice removal.

Morales said he will try to move money around his own budget to cover some of the extra costs but will have to look to the Pittsfield City Council for the rest.

In Springfield, Department of Public Works director Chris Cignoli said, the city recently went over its $1.6 million snow and ice removal budget from about a dozen winter weather events.

He said while there hasn’t been a large-scale snowstorm in the area, it’s still been a tricky winter. Cignoli said many storms have featured a combination of snow, ice, rain and fluctuating temperatures. He said all of that has made it difficult to prepare.

"It's all about how each one of these events is different than the one before it, how you plan and how much salt you put down before," Cignoli said. "Do you? Don't you? Plowing. It seems to be getting a lot, lot more complicated in making decisions on when you do things."

Both Cignoli and Morales said their respective crews have also been pushed this winter—often working long hours to clear roadways, which on weekends can be an added burden since it takes time away from being with their families.

Those crews don’t figure to get much of a rest over the next few days. A minor accumulation of snow and ice was expected Wednesday night into Thursday, which a potentially more significant storm forecast for Saturday.