Winter Batters Contingency Fund

By John Voket

During Monday’s biweekly meeting, selectmen made a proactive transfer of $105,188 from the town’s contingency fund to underwrite additional anticipated snow supplies and removal overtime expenses.

The move is anticipatory, in that the Highway Department currently still has both moderate levels of sand and salt, and some overtime money in its department budget. Transfers of this nature also must traverse the trinity of selectmen to Board of Finance to Legislative Council for oversight before the funds become available.

First Selectman Herb Rosenthal commented that the transfer process would take several weeks, and with the frequent pattern of recent winter storms, town leaders wanted to be ready to restock supplies sooner rather than much later.

The half-dozen snow events so far this year, combined with their length and timing, has taken its toll.

According to Mr Rosenthal, over the past few weeks, snow has arrived during the later part of the day or evening, causing plow crews to remain on at overtime through the evening rush hour, or called back in from home to keep roads safe overnight and into the morning rush hours. A couple of weekend storms have tapped into the Highway Department’s overtime budget as well.

“During [last weekend’s] storm, we had to call everybody in at 3 pm Saturday. They all worked until 1 or 2 pm Sunday, and then we had to call some back in at 3 am Monday morning to take care of all the drifting snow,” Mr Rosenthal reported to fellow selectmen.

The first selectman said he had the opportunity to accompany one of the plow operators last weekend, and was pleased with what he saw.

“I was driving around with one of the crew leaders and the roads I saw by noontime Sunday looked good. I thought the crews did a good job on the roads,” he said.

Mr Rosenthal also participated in a conference call among many of the state’s mayors and town leaders Saturday, to track any significant issues or damage related to the storm. He said some discussion also involved the possible access of federal funds to help Connecticut communities minimize extra snow storm expenses.

On Wednesday, Mr Rosenthal told The Bee, that Governor Jodi Rell has the option of requesting federal assistance based on the entire winter’s storm impact, not just the recent spate.

While the business of snow cleanup was transpiring during the past week, local students enjoyed on-again, off-again school schedules. After the latest storm Wednesday, nearly 100 children and families turned out to the hills and makeshift skating rink at Treadwell Park.

According to one parent on hand watching the brightly outfitted pack of youngsters repeatedly whizzing down the sledding hills, his children all got to enjoy their favorite winter recreation in one place.