White Means Green for DPW Officials, but no Additional Funds Needed Yet

Despite a heavy snowstorm in December, last week’s blizzard and another round of messy weather on Tuesday, superintendent Don Onusseit said the town is not yet anticipating a need for more funding before winter’s end.

Wilmington officials are operating on a budget of $540,000 for the year, and Onusseit said his department is close to halfway through the figure.

“The expenditure is a moving target throughout the winter,” he said. “We’re a little ahead of schedule, but we’ll wait and see what the rest of the winter brings and if we’ll go over.”

Onusseit estimates that in the last 10 years, the DPW has gone over its allotted amount six times.

There is more for officials to take into consideration than just the amount of snow that hits Wilmington in a winter.

Even if a smaller amount of total snowfall falls in town, it can still be costly if workers need to sand and salt more than usual because of icy conditions.

One issue that came along with Tuesday’s snow and rain is that DPW workers were still clearing high snow piles from last week’s blizzard when the latest precipitation hit.

“After the big storm we measured 26 inches of snow,” said Onusseit. “We know we’ll have to go out and work on the snow banks in order to make it safe for drivers. Typically with a storm like last week, we’re out there for a week to ten days working on bankings and the narrowness of roads. (Tuesday) will set us back a little bit, but we’ll go back tomorrow and start working on those areas again.”

To make things worse for Onusseit, he’s seen reports of more snow possible for Friday.

“It can get pretty tiring, but we’ve all been through it before,” he said.