OT pay for snow removal could affect Valley budgets for summer road work

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Tens of thousands of dollars spent on overtime pay to clear winter roads could affect what dollars are left to make road fixes in some communities this summer.

The Ohio Department of Transportation and the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office already have spent more on overtime for snow and ice removal so far this season than they did for all of last season.

So far this season, ODOT has spent $13,144,411 on 457,473 hours of overtime statewide for snow and ice removal. This compares with $9,804,113 for 345,556 overtime hours for all of last season.

Steve Faulker, ODOT press secretary, did not have county-by- county breakdowns of overtime, but he said ODOT plow drivers have traveled 11 million miles so far this winter to treat and plow roads.

Faulkner said ODOT, which has a $2.8 billion annual budget, has an obligation to keep roads safe and passable, and he acknowledged some construction projects could be cut later this year because of high overtime costs for winter road maintenance.

“Our first priority is preservation and maintenance of our current system, and that includes snow and ice removal,” he said.

Fluctuating winter maintenance overtime and salt costs and motor vehicle fuel-tax revenues affect ODOT’s budget and the availability of funds for construction projects, he added.

From November 2013 to the present, the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office has spent $113,858 on overtime, compared with $108,282 between November 2012, and March 31, 2013.

“The snow events, for the most part, seemed to begin at night and/or weekends, and obviously that’s all overtime,” county Engineer Patrick Ginnetti said of this season’s events.

The $113,858 in overtime so far this season is 1.72 times the $66,336 spent during the same period last season. Snow and ice events in the last half of February and in March contributed heavily to last season’s total overtime cost, Ginnetti said.

If present trends continue, the $113,858 spent on overtime so far this season could mount up to more than $184,000 for the whole season, Ginnetti said.

However, Ginnetti, said, so far this year, his office has spent only 38.4 percent of its $175,000 overtime budget for 2014, so he doesn’t expect this year’s planned paving and other road improvement projects will be affected.

Ginnetti said he has taken steps to reduce overtime costs, including paying overtime to just one supervisor to call out all drivers, rather than up to seven district supervisors who were paid to do this in the past, and routinely loading salt trucks during regular business hours the day before an anticipated snow or ice storm.

“If we get through the first couple of months of the new year, and we’re at or below 50 percent of our budgeted overtime amount, then we should be in very good shape” because the next major overtime spending likely won’t occur until the snow and ice period returns in November, Ginnetti said.

“In the summer, we’ll have some overtime when trees fall in the storms, but it’s not the entire fleet and not the entire staff” who need to be paid overtime for such events, he explained.

Youngstown has experienced a dramatic increase in its overtime expenses for street department workers taking care of snow removal, said Sean McKinney, the city’s buildings and grounds commissioner.

The city has spent $155,912.49 this season to remove snow and treat roads with a gravel/sand mixture compared with $99,237.04 last season, he said.

The city spent $58,956.73 on street department overtime in January and February of 2013 compared with $94,001.74 during 2014’s first two months with half of February still not finished, McKinney said.

“The bad winter is impacting our overtime budget,” he said. “It is a significant difference and winter isn’t over yet.”

The timing of the major snowfalls and icy road conditions has added to its expense, he said.

“It’s hit on some weekends,” McKinney said. That means time-and-a-half for street department workers.

The street department’s overtime budget is about $300,000 this year. The overtime budget last year started at $300,000 and was increased to $445,000 with the department ending 2013 with about $400,000 in overtime expenses, McKinney said.

The street department will have to be careful with the use of overtime through the rest of the year, he said. But the department still will fill potholes and demolish vacant properties during normal working shifts, he said.

Michael Dockry, Austintown administrator, said the township has spent $61,000 more this winter season in overtime compared with last season. The amount is from Nov. 1 through Jan. 31 for each season. It doesn’t include what’s been spent thus far for February.

“Whatever we end up spending during the winter season will affect our resurfacing program,” Dockry said.

More money spent during the winter months means there will be less available to resurface roads in the spring and summer, he said.

Boardman Township officials were in Columbus at the Ohio Township Association Winter Conference the latter part of this week, so dollar amounts for overtime weren’t available.

But Larry Wilson, road superintendent, said the township’s resurfacing program is set for this year.

The township secured a loan through the Ohio Public Works Commission to resurface 25 to 26 streets this spring. The township will try to address with patch any others that may need attention, Wilson said.

Hubbard’s street department is a little over in its budget for overtime, said Mayor John Darko. “We won’t bust our budget because of the snow,” he said, adding that the overtime will not affect road projects in the spring.

In Liberty Township, road department supervisor Gus Economos said there’s been no strain on the budget for overtime for the five-member road crew.

“But if we have a few more of these storms, it would put a strain on it,” he said. “It may affect hot-patching. We would have to watch our budget.”

Jerry Lambert, Girard’s safety-services director, said the city is not trying to limit overtime if it has to be paid for call-outs.

“I don’t think it’s taxing the budget,” he said. “The auditor isn’t complaining.”

Officials from the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office and cities of Warren and Niles say they don’t expect the overtime they’ve spent this year will affect the amount of road work they can do the rest of the year.

Greg Alberini, road superintendent for Trumbull County Engineer Randy Smith, said the agency has used $134,000 of overtime for ice and snow control this winter, whereas an average winter would be about $100,000 for the whole season.

But the maintenance plan for road repairs planned for this summer is about the same as before this winter’s bad weather arrived.

“We don’t see a problem at all at this point,” he said.

In Warren, $26,656 of overtime has been paid in the past six weeks. Last year, it took about the first eight weeks to spend that much, according to the Warren Finance Department.

Warren, however, has employed a midnight shift since Dec. 1, so that has limited the amount of overtime to a degree, said safety-service director Enzo Cantalamessa.

The amount of paving will not change this year because the city sold $2.5 million in bonds to pay for a large road-maintenance project this summer. It will involve repaving 65 residential streets.

In Niles, the road department has used $9,070 in overtime so far this year, including $4,000 in the last two weeks. But Niles also has a midnight shift, which limits overtime resulting from treatment of roads.

Auditor Charles Nader said the extra costs associated with treating roads this winter will not affect road projects this spring or summer because “we always try to put some extra money” into the budget to cover the possibility of increased winter costs.