ATHOL — Despite a recent string of storms dumping plenty of snow, rain, and freezing rain, Public Works Director Dick Kilhart said the department’s snow and ice budget is in fairly good shape.

“We’re probably about two-thirds into that snow and ice account,” said Kilhart. “They allot us an amount of $290,000 and we have, just through the end of last week – we ran the numbers – and we have just under $100,000 remaining in this year’s snow and ice budget before we would have to request any kind of request for more funding.”

Still, given the vagaries of New England weather, the DPW chief said things can always change pretty quickly.

“As you know – I mean, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out it’s been light with regards to snow and ice,” he said. “We have really tried to educate our crew not only in the calibration of the equipment but also in the application of (the salt) and the theory behind how it gets applied and when it gets applied. Now that we have the crew kind of buying into our thought process, people can see that the process is working.

“The other evening, when you have the duration of a storm that’s 24 hours and it doesn’t really snow that much – it snows and then it rains and then it snows and then it rains – the application process is sometimes a multiple step process that has to take place. Of course, we can’t control Mother Nature.”

Despite any uncertainty, however, Kilhart feels comfortable with what is left in his winter storm budget.

“At this point, approaching Feb. 1, with a healthy amount still in the snow and ice budget, we seem to be in pretty good shape,” he said.

Kilhart said the town’s salt barn is full and the supply should be enough to handle at least a couple of more storms.

“We’re full, which generally means we can go one to two, maybe two and a half storms before we’d have to reorder, depending upon what happens,” he said. “But, as we all know, we sometimes get fooled sometimes here with the weather that we’ve had. February and March can sometimes be the worst of the two snow and ice seasons. We’re hopeful it continues on in the way that it has been, because it hasn’t been that trying in regards to long duration storms, with exception of the one we had the other night.

“Crew-wise we seem to be in good shape. We’re actually down a couple of employees because we’ve had different ones take other jobs, but most often we don’t have a hundred percent of the crew in on every storm to begin with. For salting events, for instance, generally it’s four or five of the crew. Ploughing, obviously, then it’s all hands on deck and most everybody comes in. But you still have people who may be away that day, or can’t make it in for one reason or another, so we do the best we can with the resources and the folks that we have.”

Kilhart explained that Athol belongs to a cooperative for making salt purchases but even so, prices have gone up considerably.

“We belong to what’s called the Oxford Salt Cooperative,” he said. “There’s probably 22 or 24 of us – Phillipston, Gardner, Fitchburg, Oxford, Harvard – there’s a whole bunch of towns in Middlesex County, Worcester County that belong to this salt cooperative.

“A year ago, we were paying $70, $72 a ton for salt. This year we’re paying $92 a ton. So, the price has gone up significantly. We haven’t seen a price increase like that for years. Usually it goes from $66 to $68, $72 to $74, and this year that low bid through that consortium was $92.”

The cost has led Kilhart to purchase less salt to keep on hand.

“We’ve actually purchased less salt than we have in years past because of the cost and because of the usage, and that’s why it’s imperative that you really maximize your dollar,” he said. “The price had gone up significantly. But when it comes to purchasing, we don’t wait until we don’t have enough to cover one storm. When we get to where we might have one (storm) left, or one and a half left, we fill the barn.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.

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