Newtown’s Department of Public Works (DPW) could be looking at as much as a quarter-million dollar surplus in its winter maintenance account as long as the town is not hit with one or more spring snowfalls.

According to documents provided to The Newtown Bee, as of March 8, the DPW had expended around $450,000 of its $819,535 total winter maintenance budget, according to Town Finance Director Robert Tait.

Some added expenditure from that account was expected, as at least one additional weather event occurred following the latest reported draw from that budget, Mr Tait said. Public Works Director Fred Hurley also said there are several supply invoices still waiting to be paid from the account as well.

The finance director believed that part of the reason why the winter maintenance account is in such good shape is because the DPW already had a salt and sand surplus available before the beginning of the current fiscal year.

The winter maintenance budget covers expenses related to snow removal and sanding in the winter and removal of winter sand from the roadways and catch basins in the spring and summer. It includes all related overtime salary and wages, Social Security contributions, contractual services, sand, salt, and replacement parts and repairs on sanders, plows and plow blades for trucks.

The budget for the Winter Maintenance department, for fiscal year 2018-19 increased $92,488 or 12.7 percent. The increase is mainly due to increased contractual services for road sweeping and catch basin cleaning, increased salt due to a low beginning inventory, and an increase in overtime.

Crews were first pressed into action on November 15-16, 2018, when a snow and ice storm dropped more than eight inches of mixed precipitation on local roads between that Thursday and Friday.

Another lengthy weekend event kept crews busy between January 19-21, during which winter crews used up more than 330 yards of sand, almost 412 yards of salt, and required a combined 617-plus hours of overtime compensation.

A similar mid-week event February 12-13 used slightly more material but 200 fewer hours of overtime because crews during part of the two days worked the normal work day, versus the weekend. The largest snowfall of the winter, which generated more than ten inches of snow, happened overnight between March 3-4, generating 347 hours of overtime.

The town snow removal operation divides the town into four quadrants with a unified highway crew of seven employees responsible for each area. There is a crew leader, lead man, heavy equipment operator, and four regular truck drivers in each crew.

Each crew is responsible for six plow runs of 10-12 miles in length in a total road system of approximately 270 miles. In addition to clearance of roads, the operation also encompasses school and town building parking lots and Fairfield Hill campus.

The five-year rolling average for sand usage has been 3,797 cubic yards annually. The equivalent of 4,374 tons of treated road salt has been used annually over the last five years.