Northwest Iowa — With all the snow we had in February, snow removal budgets in some area towns are getting tight.
We spoke with city personnel in a number of northwest Iowa towns, and it runs the gamut from doing just fine, through getting close, all the way to over budget.
In Sheldon, City Manager Sam Kooiker tells us that there are five relevant line items in the budget, totaling $39,000. Of that amount, over 93 percent has been spent. He says Sheldon will likely exceed the snow budget this year and will need a supplemental appropriation.
He broke it down further and said that 77 percent of the snow removal budget is used, and over 97 percent of the Street Department overtime budget is used. Seventy-five percent of the contract work budget is used. Kooiker says over 94 percent of the chemical and salt budget is used. He says they’ve already gone over on the sand budget line-item, having spent over $4500 of an only $3000 budget item — over 55 percent more than they had budgeted.
It’s a different story in Sibley. Sibley City Clerk and Finance Director Susan Sembach tells us that Sibley budgeted $31,000 for snow removal wages for fiscal year 2019. So far, she says the City has used about $11,000 of that budget, or only 35 percent. She says their total fuel budget for the year is $20,000, and they’ve used about 52% of that budget. Sembach and Sibley City Administrator Glenn Anderson tell us that the Sibley street crew “does a fantastic job of keeping their overtime low while keeping our streets clear.”
In Rock Rapids, City Administrator Jordan Kordahl says they are already $4000 over the budget for snow removal. In Orange City, Finance Officer Kent Anderson tells us that they’ve used about 86% of their snow removal budget. He says they used quite a bit in February, but thankfully they didn’t need to use much from early December through January. And in Sioux Center, Utilities Manager Murray Hulstein reports that February was tough. He says they don’t have all bills yet, but they budget about $130,000 per season for snow removal, and he says they’ve “burned through 70 percent of that.”
