Mild winter saving Cedar Rapids on overtime and salt

Craig Hanson says the city of Cedar Rapids doesn't count money saved from a mild, snow-light winter until the prospect for snow and ice ends, which he says is early April.

Even so, Hanson, the city's public works maintenance manager, estimates that the city has saved roughly $85,000 to date on overtime or overtime hours converted to time off what with the near absence of snow so far this winter.

He puts the savings at another $190,000 for salt not used that normally would have been used by this time in the winter.

On average between 2003 and 2011, the city would have paid out 3,125 hours of overtime to snow crews between Nov. 20 and now, and last year, the city paid out overtime for 2,442 extra hours for a winter that had brought more than 15 inches of snow by early January. This year the total is 83 overtime hours for what has been less than an inch of snow, Hanson reports.

The average for Cedar Rapids, he says, is 30 to 32 inches of snow in a winter, though in the last eight years, the average has been closer to 34.5 inches. In a typical winter, the city has paid out a total of 6,055 hours of overtime for snow duty, though last winter, Hanson says the city held that figure to 3,902 hours despite an above-normal winter for snow.

Historically, the city still averages about 20 inches of snow from early January until spring, and a couple of ice storms easily could be in the offing, which could erase much of the seasonal savings to date, Hanson says.

Streets employees, he adds, aren't sitting on their hands. Crews are trimming trees, cleaning out ditches, patching potholes, repairing alleys, removing tree stumps and milling bumps on stretches of Edgewood Road NW and Blairs Ferry Road NE.