Last week’s cold wave was known for 20-degree-below-zero temperatures and windchills of minus 50 degrees or worse, but here’s a number left in the storm’s wake that will send even more chills down your spine: $3.5 million.
That’s Chicago’s bill for dealing with the snow and cold, including salt spreading, the repair of hundreds of broken water mains, and overtime pay.
And the city is not alone. All over the metropolitan area, budget directors and bureaucrats are adding up the costs of the Siberian Express.
“It’s too early to tell whether this will be a budget problem,” said city Budget Director Paul Vallas, “but we give departments budgets that assume there will be emergencies.”
Budget assessments may be premature. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning Wednesday, forecasting snow developing overnight and sleet Thursday that could turn into a major ice storm.
The numbers from last week’s freeze are in, and it looks like the city’s Water Department was nicked for the lion’s share-more than $2.2 million to fix broken mains, including $1.9 million in overtime and $300,000 in material.
Still, with a $3.4 billion city budget and 11 months of the fiscal year remaining, the city should be able to balance its books, Vallas said.
And it just may be that severe cold is cheaper to contend with than heavy snowfalls, some authorities said.
“The budget is based on snow calls, ice calls and drifting, all combined,” said Don Zeilenga, Du Page County transportation director. “If you’re just hitting ice, you can do it with less man-hours than clearing 10 inches of snow. Last year, we had 50 inches of snow, and we spent more on overtime than it appears we will this year.”
Du Page spent $150,000 for overtime expenses last year and has budgeted $100,000 for this year, Zeilenga said.
The budget is not as bright in Joliet, where overtime costs are expected to be twice as much this January as last, according to Road Supt. Jim Greenan.
“We’ve had a tough month,” he said. “The one-inch snows cause us more problems than a big snowstorm because we have so many hills and bridges to maintain. It’s easier plowing and salting once after a big storm than to salt the streets and bridges constantly after an inch or so freezes on the ground.”
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In McHenry County, the Highway Department has spent about half of its $100,000 salt-and-sand budget and about $60,000 for overtime, also about half the allocation, Supt. Michael Magnuson said.
“This is not out of line because we are about nine weeks into the season with about nine more to go until the end of March,” he said. “We have no cause for alarm because we still have plenty of funds budgeted. It would take a series of horrendous snowstorms to use it up.”
While crummy winters are anticipated and budgeted for in the Chicago area, they are still strains on tight budgets financed by penny-conscious taxpayers.
Chicago’s headache, however, seems mild compared with the migraines of cities such as New York, which revealed two weeks ago that $10 million budgeted for winter costs was gone. And the weather is still bad in New York.
That makes Chicago’s 1993-94 winter season seem like a taxpayers’ bargain.
In 1993, the city budgeted $10 million for snow removal and other winter-related costs. It ended up spending $14 million, according to Eileen Carey, the head of the Department of Streets and Sanitation and Mayor Richard Daley’s general in the war against winter.
That’s in addition to unexpected costs stemming from last year’s flooding, which cost more than $1 million.
Still, with an annual budget of more than $263 million, Carey brags that she managed to bring in a $2 million surplus last year.
The city has budgeted $10.3 million for snow removal and other winter-related costs in 1994, Carey said.
Last year’s 47 inches of snow, 7 more than the average, made up the heaviest snowfall in nine years. But that’s nothing like the fabled winter of 1979, when 83.7 inches dropped like a bomb on Chicago and the mayoralty of Michael Bilandic, who is said to have lost his job to Jane Byrne because he didn’t get the plows out soon enough.
To put that in perspective, 83.7 inches is 6 feet 11 3/4 inches, which translates to about 6 inches over the top of Michael Jordan’s head.
The city has had about 12 inches of snow this season, according to city spokesman Terry Levin, but they have been light snows in cold weather and dry snows on weekends.
That means salt-the big rocky kind that turns Chicago’s streets into rivers of shoe-eating, car-corroding brine and covers the city with a thin crust like the rim of a margarita glass.
It seems, many observers like to complain, that Chicago’s response to even the slightest snow is a saline solution.
In the winter of 1992-93, the city began with 204,000 tons of salt, at a bulk cost of $18 a ton, but ended up spreading 270,349 tons with a special order in midseason.
This time, the city stockpiled 303,000 tons of salt and has tossed about 135,000 tons.
Dry snow, like the stuff that fell around Christmas, is a salt problem because it doesn’t contain much moisture. When it melts, the water doesn’t wash away the salt, leaving the impression that the city has been dipped in a salt wash, Levin said.
The expense of salt is where some other areas are feeling the pinch. Naperville has used about 1,500 more tons, or $34,500 of salt, than usual.
“Salt loses its effectiveness below 25 degrees Fahrenheit, so at zero degrees, you have to use 5 to 10 times the amount of salt,” said Steve Kaar, Naperville operations and maintenence manager.
Kane County usually uses 11,000 tons of salt each winter but has spread 7,000 tons this season, according to Transportation Director Nabi Fakroddin.
“Hopefully we will remain within the 11,000,” he said.
But there shouldn’t be too much hand wringing. New-to-town television reporters and weather forecasters have been getting excited about what to most longtime Chicago residents know is just another bad winter.
Those with longer memories, including Carey, note that the last few years have been relative picnics in the park compared with the beast of 1979.
And Levin noted, with an eye to the sky, that this week marks the 27th anniversary of the blizzard of 1967, when 23 inches of snow fell on Jan. 26 and 27, virtually closing the city for days.
“Now that was a winter!” Levin exclaimed.
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