Snow Removal Costs at $330k and Counting
- 20 hours ago
- 2 min read
Updated: 29 minutes ago
You will often hear town officials say that a budget is, at best, an educated guess. Yes, you can get quotes for health insurance and have a rough idea of how much you will spend in salaries, but budgeting for something like snow removal is a bit of a crap shoot.
This year towns have so much snow to deal with they don’t have any place left to put it, prompting “Nearly a dozen Connecticut towns are notifying state environmental officials that they may need to dump tons of snow into nearby rivers and lakes,” according to CTMirror. You can imagine the havoc that much snow is wreaking on budgets.
In Middletown, the city is seeking to more than double what it’s already spent. New Haven was running out of money for snow removal back at the beginning of February. In Stafford, Department of Public Works (DPW) Director, John Whetton, updated the Board of Selectmen on where the DPW stands.
Thus far, this season, Stafford DPW has racked up 3,383 man hours for snow removal, according to Whetton. One recent storm alone was 316 hours, and cost the town $23,400 between labor and material. All told, Whetton said snow removal costs have totaled about $330,000 through February 24, 2026, but the season isn’t finished having its way with Stafford's roads. Another snow fall is expected Thursday to Friday.
Stafford does not havea specific snow removal line item. Materials like sand and salt are paid for through Town Aid Road program, and man hours are accounted for in the salary and overtime budget lines.* When resident Donna Wright asked during the public comment session where the money would come from, First Selectman Bill Morrison said that first they had to wait to see what the fully realized costs are. Selectman Tony Armelin told Wright that they would first look within the DPW budget to cover the extra costs.
*This information was added after the article was originally published.
