Hinsdale, Clarendon Hills eye savings due to lack of snow

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Updated: February 22, 2012 12:17PM

Public works employees in both Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills have been keeping busy with work, despite a mild winter with relatively little snowfall to date.

A year ago, a Feb. 1-2 blizzard that dumped about 20 inches of snow in the area resulted in about $7,000 in overtime for work done by Hinsdale Public Services employees and a total bill of more than $41,000 for all storm-related costs.

Clarendon Hills’ bill for the blizzard was about $28,000, which included about $13,000 for overtime paid to Public Works employees.

Neither Clarendon Hills nor Hinsdale have had to deal this winter with anything like the February 2011 blizzard, although Public Works Director Jon Hays said it’s too early to be certain there won’t be any blizzards on the way.

“This, by far, has been the mildest December I can remember, and January was pretty good, too,” he said. “Every day that goes by without snowfall is good for the overtime budget, but we don’t feel completely out of the woods until we get into March and look at a 10-day forecast that doesn’t show anything. When that happens, we can start smiling.”

Hays said he doesn’t yet know how much Clarendon Hills will save by hopefully not having to pay out nearly as much overtime as was the case a year ago.

“Things often tend to balance out over a period of a few years,” he said. “We had quite a bit of overtime last winter and not this time. If it continues this way, we’ll have to have some savings this year.”

In Clarendon Hills, Hays said forestry has been the biggest focus this winter for work by his department.

“We’ve been able to do more tree trimming than in the past five years because we have the time available,” he said. “We also have been doing some storm drain work, which we usually never do in the winter.”

George Franco, Hinsdale’s director of Public Services, agreed the low snowfall this winter has allowed for other work to be done.

“It’s very helpful in allowing us to catch up on some things that we wouldn’t have been able to get to, like tree trimming, planting, alley grading and cleaning of our park facilities so they’re nice and clean for the spring,” he said.

Franco estimated the snowfall this winter likely will result in savings of about $18,000-$20,000 for the village.

“There are a lot of costs involved with a storm like we had last year,” he said. “Along with necessary overtime, there’s a lot of wear-and-tear on equipment.”

Both Franco and Hays said they have an ample supply of salt for roads this winter. Both villages are part of a salt-purchasing cooperative, which means they get a reduced price, but also have to take at least 80 percent of their initial order, even if it’s not needed.

In Clarendon Hills, Hays said the village stores its salt in a dome and beneath a tarp. Franco said Hinsdale has storage space for salt, but may seek additional space from neighboring municipalities.

“It’s not a problem storing the salt if you have the space,” Hays said. “The key is that you have to keep it dry.”

Another factor that likely will result from the mild winter is fewer potholes this spring than has been the case for several years.

“We always have potholes to deal with, but the last four years have been particularly bad for potholes; this year shouldn’t be nearly as bad,” Franco said.

Potholes are caused by the cycle of freezing and thawing that occurs during the winter. Water that gets into pavement expands when it freezes, creating the potholes.