The winter storm which hit Williamson County last Friday also hit the pockets of local governments who spent days trying to clear roads, emptying their stockpiles of salt and stretching their staffs thin with overtime.
County Highway Superintendent Eddie Hood said Tuesday his crews used over 1,200 tons of salt on the county's roads since last Friday, compared to using only 400 tons in 2009.
"The best de-icer is when Mother Nature shines the sun on it," Hood said Tuesday, adding that with 720 miles of roads to cover, "there are still some slick spots in the county."
Hood expected to pick up an additional 1,000 tons of salt Wednesday to be covered in the event of another round of bad weather. The county also has an inter-local agreement with Thompson's Station and Nolensville governments to spread salt on their roads, so that adds to Hood's workload.
Still he projects only 25 hours of overtime from Friday night until Monday night at a projected cost of $12,400.
In Brentwood, City Manager Mike Walker said the city spent more than $41,000 clearing city and state roads in the northern Williamson County municipality, but the amount was in the city's budget.
Brentwood Public Works Director Jeff Donegan put 658 tons of salt on all the streets, with 398 tons of the salt on city-owned streets and 260 tons on state routes.
"The state will replenish the 260 tons so we used," Donegan said as part of an agreement Brentwood has with the Tennessee Department of Transportation. His department had 401 hours of overtime during the storm response, valued at $12,083.
In comparison, Brentwood, stacked up pretty well against Wakefield, Mass. with regard to snow removal costs. Wakefield, Mass., a town of similar size to Brentwood and located about 10 miles outside of Boston, gets its fair share of snow during the winter season.
DPW Director Rick Stinson, spoke with the Williamson Herald this week and said, “A normal, small storm of 4-6 inches is estimated to cost Wakefield between $50,0000 and $75,000.” That cost includes sanding roads, salting roads, manpower and equipment and fuel costs. Wakefield plows 105 road miles, equivalent to 250 lane miles, due to the number of passes it takes to clear wider roads. When told that Brentwood spent in the neighborhood of $41,000 to clear roads during a weekend snow event, he said, “Wow, they definitely did not overspend.”
"Our policy is to get to all the main roads (arterials and major collectors) in the city which include Liberty Pike, Mallory Lane, McEwen, Carothers, Cool Springs Boulevard," City Administrator Eric Stuckey told aldermen in an email Monday afternoon. "During the weekend storm, we used 325 tons of salt from Friday through today. We started salting as soon as the snow started to accumulate on the ground. We had a total of four salt trucks, three of which have snow plows.
"With the staff and amount of salt we have we are not able to get to the neighborhood roads, but do try to get usual hills and slick spots as history has pointed out," Stuckey said, directing residents to the city's Web site to see the snow and ice removal map.
Stuckey estimates the cost of overtime to be approximately $5,000, with the majority of the overtime — 235 hours — in the Streets Department. The city now has 130 tons of salt on hand for the remainder of the winter season.
"Our streets crews along with police worked diligently over this past weekend to respond to this winter storm. Their efforts are greatly appreciated," Stuckey said, adding a weather event of this kind is rare.
"Joe York reports it has been seven years since a storm of this magnitude," Stuckey said, adding the city will review its snow routes to make sure it is taking care of the most heavily traveled streets.
Now that roads are clear, officials will look for places where the combination of winter weather and products used to clear it have damaged surfaces, leaving potholes.
For officials at the Williamson County Public Library, cabin fever appears to have had a huge impact on circulation, with transactions the day before the storm totaling 3,998, including 2,254 checkouts.
On Monday, Feb. 1, the first day the libraries were open following the storm, check-ins totaled over 2,300 materials with a total of transactions of 4,535. On Tuesday, Feb. 2, totals surpassed even those numbers, hitting 4,799 transactions, split almost evenly with 2,283 checkouts and 2,219 check-ins.
Library officials said transactions of 4,000 or more do not occur until the summer or after a holiday, with a normal day around 2,400 transactions.
Staff Writer Donna O’Neil contributed to this story.
