Mild Winter Resulted in Large City Cost Savings for Snow Removal
The City of Evanston’s Public Works Department recently announced a huge cost savings in its annual snow removal budget of more than $300,000 due to the relatively mild winter.
This year, city crews responded to many fewer snow and ice related incidents in comparison to previous years. Over the past five years, Evanston experienced an average of more than 38 inches of snow. During the 2010/11 snow season, city crews responded to 53 incidents.
So far this year, Evanston only experienced a cumulative total of 16 inches of snow and responded to a mere 24 incidents of snow and ice. As a result, the Public Works Department saved $369,596 in snow removal staff overtime, snow parking ban towing costs and salt expenditures so far this year. If there are no significant snow or ice incidents later this year, the city will have saved $176, 874 over last year’s savings. See chart below for details.
