By Tom Mark

Vernon In The Red For Snow Control

Jan 9, 2018 | 11:10 AM

It’s been a snowy winter and the City of Vernon is paying the price.

The city’s snow and ice control budget for 2017 went into the red.

Public Works Manager James Rice says the budget for last year was 670 thousand dollars.

“As of today, just checking the numbers and we do still have a few costs rolling in, though they’ll be minor, we’re currently sitting just over 700 thousand dollars, so about a 35 thousand dollar overage for 2017.”

Although we got a big dump of snow early in November, much of the reason for going in the red goes back to the start of the year.

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“January and February of last year were very busy. We did go over on our snow removal amount of that budget by about 30 thousand dollars.”

The cost will be covered through a reserve fund that has been built up over the years and it can be used for 2018 as well.

“Obviously it’s very early for 2018 and typically January and February tend to be our busiest months for snow and ice. So, usually around April – May we do a quick check of the budget and we have a pretty good idea how we’re going to sit for the rest of the year.”

People living in Vernon’s residential areas waiting for the city to do snow removal won’t see that happening.

Public Works Manager James Rice says there’s no money in the budget for that.

“It’s a very expensive process. Plowing snow to the sides is one thing, but when you have to remove snow, it’s a totally different function.”

The city concentrates its snow removal program in the downtown core and the highway.

“Already in 2018 we’ve tackled 48th Avenue, the downtown core, 27th street. We are closely monitoring the highway right now. Even though we don’t plow the highway through town, we are responsible for snow removal down that section.”

Rice says the warmer weather this week is helping to melt some of that snow.

A system may be moving in that could bring snow Thursday and any snow removal along the highway likely wouldn’t happen until Friday or Saturday

by Tom Mark