The Springfield News-Leader today breaks down some of the amounts the various government entities spend during a simple 1″ snowfall, including:
Smith estimated that by the end of the storm, the county [Greene] would spend between $40,000 and $50,000 on highway salt alone.
…
John Drury, superintendent of streets at Springfield Public Works, said the city could spend $20,000 to salt primary and secondary routes in a 12-hour period. During that shift, labor would cost about $12,000 and the cost of operating vehicles and equipment, about $24,000.
That calculates to roughly $56,000 per shift.
Drury said this storm would require two shifts, possibly a third.
The Springfield school district spent an estimated $4,000 in salt for sidewalks and portions of parking lots Monday.
This is the cost of essential government service. Officials admit that this year has not broken the budget, with the unseasonably warm temperatures and precipitation falling as rain instead of snow or ice. But this is what government should spend money on. Not on distressed buildings it wants to spruce up for an urban renaissance, not on diversity co-ordinators and public-private partnership mavens or educational outreach programs or clever advertising for government initiatives. Or clever government initiatives, for that matter.
