The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
As winter hangs on, snow funds melt away
HARTFORD — The state had spent $35 million of the $36 million budgeted for winter storm clean-up, as of Wednesday, the Department of Transportation reported. The news comes as the National Weather Service predicts a chance of snow across parts of Connecticut next Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
The department has responded to 15 storms so far this winter, DOT spokesman Kevin Nursick said. It also salted and removed snow from eight other weather events not big enough to qualify as a “storm.”
That is more than the “average” winter, which DOT estimates to be about 13 storms, Nursick said.
“Estimated expenditures by storm range from $600,000 to more than $3 million,” Nursick wrote in an email. “The most ‘expensive’ storm to date was January 4-5, estimated at just over $3 million.”
DOT’s budget covers snow and ice removal across the state, as well as the cost of road salt, plow blades and contracting trucks to supplement the department’s fleet. Tree removal, often
necessary after nor’easters with high winds, is not included in that budget.
If DOT overspends its winter clean-up funds, it will first look to absorb the costs internally through other areas of its budget, Nursick said. But if necessary, it may seek a legislative appropriation
from the state’s beleaguered Special Transportation Fund. The STF is expected to be insolvent in 2019 and in serious deficit by 2020.
Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said Tuesday that the state will continue to spend as necessary to keep roadways safe, even as storm clean-up funds trickle away.