This winter season, New England has seen brutal cold and heavy snowfall. And with temperatures staying near or below freezing, cities and towns across the region have had to work overtime to remove snow that isn’t melting.
“This is the most significant amount of snow we’ve gotten, probably in my tenure, over (the last) five years,” Warwick Mayor Frank Picozzi said in a recent interview. “It’s also been very, very cold. I heard that it’s probably the harshest winter in the past 30 years. It’s been a challenge dealing with it.”
Warwick still has room in its Department of Public Works budget, which handles snow removal, but Picozzi said this winter is stretching it thin. He anticipates needing to tap into it for storm clean-ups later in the year, or for flooding or hurricane response. “The overtime budget is not just for winter,” Picozzi said.
Warwick has a sizable fleet of trucks and labor to help with sidewalk and road snow removal, but the city still has limited resources and equipment.
“We don’t get significant amounts of snow, so it’s not normally a problem,” Picozzi said. “And they would just sit idle for years at a time.”
Meanwhile, Providence has already spent approximately $787,000 on snow clean-up efforts following the significant snowfall in January and February, according to city spokesperson Josh Estrella.
“However, this is not the final total as the City has outstanding expenses for departments that are still involved in snow clean-up efforts and vendors that are continuing to work on overnight snow hauling throughout the city,” Estrella said in an email.
The city of Providence has spent more than $300,000 on salt and sand, and paid contractors more than $145,000 to haul snow, Estrella said. Providence spent just under $2.4 million total on storm response in its last fiscal year, according to the city’s Storm Response fiscal report for 2023 - 2025.
Statewide, the Rhode Island Department of Transportation has spent approximately $9.1 million on 117,000 tons of salt, according to a spokesman. Last winter was much milder: the department spent $7.3 million on road salt.
New Bedford, Mass. is already short $266,000 this year, according to Jonathan Darling, a spokesman for New Bedford Mayor John Mitchell.
“The city has incurred costs of about $566,000 related to storms and snow removal,” Darling wrote in an email response to questions. “The budgeted amount was $300,000.”
Last fiscal year, the city’s snow removal budget was $450,000, and the city spent it all. Darling said the mayor requested the same amount this year, but the City Council cut it down to $300,000 in its final budget.
“We’ll have to figure out how to close this year’s budget gap between now and the end of the fiscal year,” Darling said.
Darling said that New Bedford is hoping for some warmer weather soon. And, of course, no more snow, “as another storm would only make the gap bigger.”
