Saving For A Snowy Day: Brick Salts Away $1.8M Budget Surplus

BRICK, NJ -- If there’s one thing predictable about New Jersey winters, it’s that they’re unpredictable: a warm month can be followed with enough snow to make it feel like the Arctic.

With that in mind, Brick Township officials have taken $1.8 million in surplus and put it aside to cover future emergencies -- $900,000 into a snow trust fund and $900,000 into an accumulated leave fund.

“We didn’t spend as much on snow removal last year,” Mayor John G. Ducey said Friday during the Brick Township Council reorganization meeting. “So Scott (Pezarras, Brick’s chief financial officer) said we should put the money away.”

The township had put $750,000 total in previous years into the fund, which can be used only for snow removal costs, Ducey said. The fund gives the township a cushion for years when the town receives significant snowfall, such as during 2010, when New Year’s Eve blizzard dumped more than 3 feet on the township.

The accumulated leave fund covers costs of sick, vacation and personal time payouts for retiring township employees, which are guaranteed under state statute but left to the towns to pay.

“It’s an unfunded liability,” Ducey said.

The fund cannot be used for anything but those payouts, Ducey said.

(Snow removal can be expensive, especially in years when the snow is a regular occurrence. Karen Wall photo)