Plowing through the money

As the snow keeps piling up, the Village of Island Park’s coffers start running out.

According to Mayor Jim Ruzicka, the village budgeted $17,000 for snow removal this year. So far this season, the village has already spent $16,000 removing snow.

“We have to provide safety,” said Ruzicka. “We still have to plow the roads and everything.”

If the village has to spend more than its budgeted money on snow removal, Ruzicka explained that officials will have to start looking to other areas of the budget where they can take money.

“I’d have to look at the entire budget,” he said. “Some areas may under-run, and we’d look at those areas and say, ‘OK, we did well here. We can bounce the money to this side.’”

According to Ruzicka, the village spent approximately $5,000 on each of the three big storms that hit the area. So if more heavy snow is predicted, the village may have to try to transfer as much as $10,000 towards snow removal.

Ruzicka explained that the village only starts to plow when three or more inches of snow starts to accumulate. Less than that, and it’s hard for the plows to move it. However, regardless of how much snow is expected, the village sands and salts the roads to help make them as safe as possible.

How much the village spends is also determined by when the snow its. If the storm hits during the week and during the day, the village employees are paid regular-time to remove it. However, if it hits at night or on a weekend, like the Dec. 26 storm, then overtime costs are involved.

“Hopefully, we don’t get any more snow,” Ruzicka said jokingly. “We still have a month and a half of worrying about it.”