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Mild winter yields big savings in Mahoning County
YOUNGSTOWN
The mild winter has produced substantial savings for the Mahoning County Engineer’s Office in snow- and ice-removal overtime costs and in salt and anti-skid gravel use.
But the engineer isn’t yet sure how many extra miles of road paving will result this year from those savings.
“We’re still looking into that. We’re still evaluating the budget,” said county Engineer Patrick Ginnetti.
“We also have to take into account our aging fleet,” of trucks and may have to replace some of them, he said Thursday.
Between Dec. 1 and March 31, 2015, the engineer’s office spent about $142,000 on overtime compared with about $61,500 in the same period this winter.
In the same four-month cold-weather period, tonnages of salt used were about 6,000 tons in 2015 and about 2,500 tons this winter, Ginnetti said.
The comparison for anti-skid gravel was about 6,000 tons last winter and about 2,500 tons this year.
The county paid $146.18 per ton for salt last winter, but only $58.84 per ton for it in the winter just ended.
The cost of gravel remained fairly constant at about $14 per ton.
The unused salt and gravel from the most recent winter is being stockpiled for next winter, Ginnetti said, adding that he hopes that stockpile results in reduced salt and gravel purchases for next winter.
Before the cost savings from the mild winter were known, the engineer’s office had about 20 miles of county roads scheduled for repaving this year.
“We’re going to try to add roads [to the repaving program] and possibly upgrade our fleet,” he said.
Repaving of Norquest Boulevard and North Turner Road in Austintown should begin in the next two weeks when the asphalt plants open, he said.
Also this year, Hopkins and Truesdale roads and Sheban Drive in Boardman will be repaved, he added.
Although the current pothole problem isn’t nearly as bad as last year’s, Ginnetti said he is again using the sheriff’s office’s day reporting inmates to help his crews with patching as he has done during the last two years.
“It’s not nearly as bad [as last spring], but we still do have a lot of roads that are in need of repair,” Ginnetti said of the pothole problem.
“A lot of the roads that weren’t paved or repaved continue to deteriorate, so we’re constantly battling that,” he said.
“Weather is our worst enemy. Snow and ice is our major contributor for overtime,” he said.
However, he added that overtime can also result from flooding, storm damage and sink holes at other times of the year.