Northborough's Snow and Ice Budget Nearly Dry

Northborough's snow and ice budget isn't gone -- yet.

The winter has consumed more than 88 percent of that budget, leaving roughly $28,000 left, Department of Public Works Director Dan Nason told selectmen Monday night.

"The bad news is we're only in the second week of January," he said.

Northborough has received more than 25 inches of snow this season, Nason said.

"The problem is, a lot of people are questioning me, saying, 'How did we deplete that much of the funds?'" he said.

Northborough has had at least eight snowstorms, not including periods of freezing rain and the like, Nason said.

"We've had some bad timing storms. A lot of them have started during the day," and the evening work "causes a lot of overtime for us," he said.

Nason said he will probably ask selectmen to approve deficit spending for snow and ice at some point this winter.

Town Administrator John Coderre explained that deficit spending means that "if you don't make it up in this budget somewhere," the municipality may "add it to the tax rate for the next fiscal year." State law allows deficit spending for snow and ice, with a vote of the selectmen, "because you don't know how much snow you're going to get," he said.

Northborough, over last seven years, has "been able to accommodate those overtures by finding areas in the budget to deal with that overture," and also has an emergency fund controlled by the appropriations committee, Coderre said.

Town officials will continue tracking the snow and ice spending, he said.

Selectman Jeff Amberson said he received two e-mails last about three weeks about the DPW's storm cleanup.

"They just wanted to compliment the DPW on the snow removal," he said.