Storms hit RVC's streets — and wallet

The onslaught of snow, rain and cold weather in recent weeks has left the village reeling: Road salt is dirtying cars, potholes are proliferating and the cost of snow removal has made a major dent in the village budget.

This year, the village budgeted $215,700 for snow removal. That included $150,000 for salt and $40,000 in overtime for employees of the Department of Public Works — a total that has already been exceeded, according to Comptroller Mike Schussheim, in what has been a record-breaking winter.

After last week's storm, the extent to which expenses have exceeded the budget had yet to be calculated, but DPW Superintendent Harry Weed admitted that it was "a fair amount." "We try to do our best to keep the numbers down while providing public safety," Weed said.

The DPW began salting the streets at 10 p.m. last Thursday and continued until 3 a.m. Friday. Then, when the flakes started to come down hard, the plowing began. All told, the DPW used 200 tons of salt for the streets and another 100 bags of sidewalk salt.

For DPW workers, snow plowing can be tedious work because they have to plow the same roads repeatedly until the snow stops. "We have to keep plowing because you never know what you're going to get," Weed said. "If I could predict exactly what we were going to get in snow — how much we were going to get and how long it was going to last — and be accurate, I wouldn't be in public works anymore."

With any forecast of snow —no matter how much — the DPW gets salt trucks ready. If the reports call for a significant accumulation, plows are prepared as well.

"We were very lucky for a long time," said Weed. "The weather, when you look at it, ... kind of runs in cycles. The last time we had these types of storms was back in 1994, 1995."

There has been another costly consequence of the weather: potholes, which are created when water from rain and melting snow gets into cracks in the street. When temperatures drop at night, the water freezes and expands, enlarging the cracks. As more water flows in and freezes, the cracks grow into potholes.

"The pothole crop this year is going to be very abundant," said Weed. "We had the absolute perfect season for a booming crop of potholes."

As a result, the cost of repairing them all has gone over-budget. DPW workers have already begun repairing potholes on village roads. But as they repair some holes, others pop up overnight in other places.

"Every time we get a weather break, we're out there," said Weed. "But no matter what you do and how aggressive you get, they're there. It's one of those things. There's nothing you can do about it; you just have to try to be prepared and tackle it as it comes."

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