A costly winter for Valley Stream

Even before last week’s big snowstorm, Valley Stream’s overtime budget for the winter was maxed out. But residents don’t need to worry about whether their streets will be plowed. With a healthy reserve fund, the village still has plenty of money to pay for any more snow cleanup this winter.

Village Deputy Treasurer Michael Fox said that $200,000 was set aside for snow removal this winter. Of that, $120,000 was earmarked for overtime for the highway crews, who have to plow 90 miles of village roads in addition to clearing the municipal parking lots.

Before the overnight snowstorm of Jan. 26-27, the village had gone over its allocated amount by $300. Then came 14.2 inches of new snow during a 13-hour period, according to the National Weather Service. Crews were still cleaning up from that storm last Friday.

“It’s putting a strain on it,” Fox said of the seemingly nonstop storms’ impact on the village budget. “I will have to take from either another place in the budget or the accumulated fund balance.”

The village has a “rainy day” — or in this case a snowy day — fund of about $10 million. Fox explained that officials could take money from the fund to cover the winter’s cost overages. Or, Fox said, they could use the savings from the many retirements at the end of 2010, since many of those positions have yet to be filled.

Before last week’s storm, Fox said, workers had compiled 2,160 overtime hours this winter, with 1,035 of those during the post-Christmas blizzard alone. That storm was all overtime, he said, because it occurred on a holiday weekend. Last week’s storm, which fell during the week, when many employees were already scheduled for a regular shift, demanded about 750 overtime hours, including the small storm Wednesday morning. Fox said he would know the final numbers when the two-week pay period ends next week.

The rest of the snow budget, $80,000 for sand, salt and equipment needs, is about half depleted. Fox said that in determining a snow budget for each winter, he uses the average amount spent over the previous three winters. Because of mild winters in past years, the village has saved money, so it is prepared for a year like this. “It’s not going to break our budget by any means,” he said.

Past savings have also allowed the village to upgrade its fleet of snow removal vehicles. During the height of a storm, there are 19 plows, sanders and payloaders out on Valley Stream’s streets.

The schools also have to pay overtime costs to clean up their grounds. Meredith Brosnan, assistant superintendent for business in District 13, said the district is still within its overtime budget, but the constant snow is certainly having an impact. Custodians get paid time-and-a-half for the first day of a snow closing, and double-time on Sundays.

“We’re getting hit, but it is what it is,” Brosnan said. “It’s health and safety, and you do it. You just cut back in another area.”

Tim Leahy, the village’s highway supervisor, said it has certainly been a taxing winter for his crews, who have been out salting, sanding and plowing nearly a dozen times since December. “Anything over an inch and a half, two inches, you have to plow,” Leahy said.

At the village garage on Arlington Avenue, crews have been working to keep the Highway Department’s fleet in good shape. Jack Cerney, the motor repair supervisor, said the crews there hook up the plows to the trucks, fix any equipment that gets damaged and check fluid levels. “We haven’t had a winter like this in a long time,” Cerney said, recalling the winter of 1996 as the last constant barrage of snow.

Although highway crews do most of the plowing, sanitation crews are called in to relieve them during the bigger storms. Leahy said that at the first sign of snow, crews begin spreading salt on the roads, which helps prevent freezing. Sand, which is better for traction, goes down later but doesn’t dissolve like salt, so it must be cleaned up in the spring.

The snowy winter has prevented the Highway Department from getting some of its other winter work done. Leahy said that this is the time of year when crews remove curbside trees that are dead or diseased, are uprooting sidewalks or have roots growing into sewer lines. “We haven’t done any since probably the middle of December,” he said.

Also, for the past few years crews have been renovating bathrooms at the village’s firehouses during the winter. This year, two bathrooms are being remodeled at the Clear Stream Avenue Firehouse, but Leahy said work is progressing slowly. A third bathroom there might not see any work, he said.

Deputy Mayor Joanne Antun said there have been some complaints about snow removal on dead-end streets. She said that in big storms, there is a limit to plows’ effectiveness on many of those blocks. Rather, snow removal requires payloaders, especially where there are driveways at the very end of the street.

According to Leahy, the village has at least 60 dead-end streets and only four payloaders, which are also used to clean up parking lots. His crews do get to each block, he said, but it takes time. “The dead-ends come before the parking lots,” he said. “Not every dead-end needs a payloader, but enough of them do.”

Antun said that the village’s Public Works Department has done a “spectacular job” this winter despite the challenging conditions. She described this as the worst winter in 15 years.

Leahy said that what has been particularly challenging is that snow hasn’t had a chance to melt before more falls. At least most storms in February and March, he said, are usually followed by a melting period. “When you get stuff in December and January,” he said, “you’re looking at it the rest of the winter.”