LETHBRIDGE, Alta. – Above average temperatures and a lack of snow this past winter could result in some big savings for the City of Lethbridge.
Snow removal cost has been down for the last couple of years which has given the city a chance to get back in the black.
Darwin Juell, the city’s transportation manager, said this season’s conditions were a far cry from a few years ago.
“I remember 2011 when we we were $2.3 million to $2.4 million over budget. In years like this or years like 2015, we can make that back – whatever we return back to the city goes back into the Municipal Stabilization Reserve and when we have a bad year like 2011, then we have to borrow from the reserve.”
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The city’s budget runs from January through December, so the verdict is still out on 2016 but so far, it’s looking good.
The year 2014 saw savings of $495,000 and 2015 was under budget by $1.16 million.
City operations manager Lee Perkins said the savings aren’t the only bonus.
“This year we are actually ahead of schedule on our street sweeping,” he said. “We are about two weeks ahead.”
Perkins added the mild winter meant less street sanding and less frost damage to city streets.
“As people will remember a few years ago with frost boils around town, we will still have some this year, but nowhere near the numbers that we had in 2011, 2012.”
The lack of snow has also had an impact on seasonal workers.
“The seasonal staff we keep on all winter long to clear snow; unfortunately, they didn’t get much work but this year we actually brought them back three weeks early to help with night street sweeping,” Perkins added.
Despite the jump-start on spring cleaning, city officials said they are always keeping an eye on the forecast because of southern Alberta’s reputation for wild swings in weather conditions.
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