Weekend Snow Costly

The snow was free - but moving and removing it, however, will likely cost Watertown taxpayers about $55,000.
A tab is still being tallied on the storm that dumped more than two feet of snow on the city last weekend, but all told, that price tag will be almost twice that of a typical snowfall, said Eugene P. Hayes, superintendent of the Department of Public Works.
"I got that call Saturday morning from one of my supervisors, and he said to me 'Hey, this is the big one,'" Mr. Hayes said. "It was the typical lake-effect machine. But we were real fortunate it happened on the weekend."
DPW crews already are on standby throughout the night, but 15 to 20 extra workers were called during the weekend to help plow and clear snow. Private contractors also were hired to help haul snow from parking lots and roadside snowbanks.
The city uses a rotary snowblower to level snow banks. That snow is blown into the back of dump trucks and taken to a Mill Street site where it is dumped into the Black River. The contractor charged about $8,300 for its services Sunday and Monday. The city does not tally how many truckloads of snow it dumps into the river.
"That storm Saturday would have taken about four plow-throughs, but the snow just kept coming and coming," Mr. Hayes said. "We can't stop plowing until the roads are clear and everything looks good."
A travel advisory was issued for the city Saturday, largely to keep thoroughfares free of cars.
"It helped keep the plows moving," Mr. Hayes said. "Other than the snow, we had the most problems with cars parked in the streets."
On Tuesday, he said he was confident that a majority of the roads were clear and that crews will concentrate on cutting back banks along intersections. He asked that people not shovel snow into the road and that they comply with the overnight parking ban.
"We'll try to get down those roads where it's getting a little tight," he said.
On Monday, city crews concentrated on removing snow from banks in the downtown area.
"Anywhere, really, where there's streetside parking," Mr. Hayes said. "We also tried to concentrate on schools, parking lots, anywhere that the banks are really intrusive."