Western Massachusetts cities and towns are totaling up the cost of snow and ice removal from roadways after a busy winter.
The cost of winter storm clean up is the only area Massachusetts communities are by law allowed to go over budget. The city of Springfield spent $2-million this winter. Mario Mazza, the assistant director of the city’s Department of Public Works, says that’s 25-percent more than budgeted. Mazza says the gap could be made up in a few different ways.
“With savings from other of either DPW’s budget or other departments’ budgets,” Mazza says. “If they can’t find the difference from those places, they’ll end up having to put on next year’s tax bill.”
Meanwhile in Chicopee, the city went $700,000 over budget. Public works officials say While that number may seem staggering, the city intentionally starts with a low figure and has reserves it can call on in case of a stormy winter. In both cities, The high cost of storm clean-up is not expected to affect other projects, such as road construction in either city.