A dearth of snow this winter could lead to a blizzard of savings for the Haines Borough.
As of Tuesday, only 8.2 inches of snow had fallen downtown all winter, according to Paul Swift’s co-op weather station on Union Street.
That’s less than one-tenth the historic average for this point in winter, according to National Weather Service figures.
Those numbers translate to a lot of dormant plows. Without the need for snow removal, the borough saves on payroll, fuel and contract expenses, said public facilities director Carlos Jimenez.
It’s hard to calculate how much money the borough saves in the form of payroll on snowplowing, because public works employees aren’t paid by the job. However, Jimenez said the amount spent on salaries and wages in the current fiscal year – $93,670 – is nearly $17,000 less than the amount spent by the same date last year.
“Some of this is attributable to a lack of overtime due to low snowfall, but much is due to employee turnover (like) vacancies and filling positions lower on the step chart,” Jimenez said.
Though the borough budgets for 65 hours of overtime for each of the four public works employees, none of that has been used. “Basically, we have not worked any overtime to speak of,” Jimenez said.
The borough also hasn’t spent any of its $35,000 budget for contract snow removal. The borough uses that money to pay private companies or people to plow areas away from downtown, like the Cathedral View and Tanani Bay subdivisions.
The borough is also saving a bundle on fuel expenses so far. December fuel expenses haven’t been posted yet, but by Nov. 30, the public works department had been expected to spend $36,300 on fuel, Jimenez said. The borough has spent less than half of that – only $15,000 – for a savings of more than $20,000.
The savings is largely due to less fuel used for snow removal, but is also partially due to reduced fuel prices, Jimenez said.
“We are saving a lot of money,” said public works director Ralph Borders. “If we are plowing all day, we probably go through 150 gallons of fuel a day or more. You’re not using a lot of that. That’s a big savings.”
The department did spend a lot of time last week sanding the sheets of ice around town, and that can add up, Borders said. “Ten yards of sand is $200 worth of sand. You can go through a lot of sand in a day.”
It’s not like the four public works employees are sitting over at the shop twiddling their thumbs, though, Borders said.
“There’s always something to do. We spent three days fixing a leaky water line. One guy has been doing a lot of sanding. We’ve been doing some welding projects,” Borders said.
Despite getting the unexpected time to work on other projects, Borders said he misses the hours spent trundling around town in the plow. “It’s nice,” he said. “Nobody can bother you.” Jimenez said he briefly spoke with manager David Sosa and chief fiscal officer Jila Stuart about the savings, but said it’s too early to start spending money the department might still need for a massive dump of snow later this winter.