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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Snow-removal costs drift higher


Barbara Lawrence of Coeur d'Alene watches as a snow plow clears her street on Jan. 3. 
 (Kathy Plonka / The Spokesman-Review)

Snowstorms that hit like a flurry of punches and last week closed some North Idaho schools are driving up snow-removal costs, forcing managers to find creative ways to save money and pay for street crews that have been plowing roads almost constantly since December.

Post Falls snowplows have already spent nearly as much time on the road this winter as they did all of last winter, said Street and Fleet Superintendent Jim Porter, who is expecting to pay higher fuel bills as a result.

“That kind of gives you an idea of what this constant snow does to us,” Porter said. “We’re only halfway through the winter.”

John Pankratz predicts his East Side Highway District will spend about $70,000 on clearing snow this winter.

“I’d rather get a foot of snow and go clear it and be done with it than get two inches here or there,” he said.

The story is the same in Coeur d’Alene, where it costs the city $4,000 to $7,000 in fuel alone every time the plows head out, according to Streets Superintendent Tim Martin.

“It has been very, very hectic,” Martin said. “We haven’t gone 30 hours without a measurable snowfall. We’ve had over 50 inches for this year so far. Last year we had 17 inches.”

Martin said some climatologists are forecasting as much as 80 inches of snow in Coeur d’Alene this winter.

The National Weather Service recorded 14 days of snow at the Coeur d’Alene sewage treatment plant in December alone, said Meteorology Technician Verne Ballard.

“Usually by this time we’ve had five to six snow events,” said Idaho Transportation Department spokeswoman Barbara Babic. “This time we’ve had 10 to 12.”

The Idaho Transportation Department is saving money this year by making its own de-icing sodium salt brine instead of using magnesium chloride, Babic said.

It cost the department 74 cents a gallon last winter to buy magnesium chloride for District 1 in North Idaho. That’s $518,000 for 700,000 gallons of the de-icer. This year the district will spend just $115,000 to make and distribute the salt brine, which costs just 12 cents a gallon.

Coeur d’Alene’s Martin said the city is considering making its own magnesium chloride brine to save money. Such solutions have the added benefit of being formulated to meet specific local conditions.

Buying it has already cost the city $27,000 this winter season. Last winter Coeur d’Alene spent $55,000 on de-icer.

Pankratz has cut back on de-icer purchases for the East Side Highway District. While he used to pay $37 a ton for it, he now pays $108 a ton.

“We still use it, but very sparingly,” he said.

It’s not just money. Time spent plowing and de-icing can get in the way of other projects.

Porter said that means when his crews are on their snowplows they aren’t doing other maintenance like patching potholes, repairing concrete and maintaining signs.

It also might mean delaying a street paving project a year or foregoing buying a new piece of equipment.

Still, transportation officials agreed that clearing roads of snow and ice comes first.

“I’m never not going to plow. I’m never not going to de-ice,” Martin said. “We’re always going to take care of the citizens.”