Cost of last week's 'Snowmageddon' highest in years

The snow from last week is no longer choking roads and closing schools, but the pain isn't over for Greater Cincinnati communities.

Now it's time to pay the bills.

The storms that dumped eight or more inches of snow over several days appear to be the most expensive in several years. The combination of extreme cold and multiple storms forced communities to use more salt, plow more roads and pay more overtime to workers than they would have if the bad weather had instead happened over a day or two.

Hamilton County spent almost $900,000 to clear county roads last week, which is about 70 percent of its snow removal costs for the entire year so far. Cincinnati, with the most miles of road to clear, has spent $1.2 million, more than half of its total for the year.

Surrounding cities and townships report similar tales of woe, which means it's likely taxpayers across the region will end up with a bill in the millions of dollars when all is said and done.

"This was the worst," said Ron Ripperger, Delhi Township's director of public works. "The temperatures make it so hard to clean up."

Delhi spent about $34,000 on snow removal last week. Communities with more roads to clear, such as Green and Anderson townships, spent several times that much.

But whether they're large or small, most of the region's communities felt some pain after the recent storms. The weather didn't cut anyone a break this time: Northern communities got socked about as hard as those south of the Ohio River.

West Chester Township, for example, spent at least $150,000 clearing snow, while the city of Covington dropped $100,000.

"It's a pretty significant storm," said Rick Davis, Covington's director of public improvement.

Adding to the burden are higher-than-usual salt costs this year. Many communities paid $100 or more for a ton of salt heading into this winter, compared to about $50 a ton last year.

That tends to make local officials wince every time they see a salt truck roll by. "We used more salt last week than we did the rest of this year to date," said Richard Shelley, Anderson Township's public works director.

Shelley said his township spent $80,000 last week, about three-fourths of that money was spent on salt. He said the bad weather spoiled what had otherwise been a mild winter, at least in terms of snow removal, and could have implications for next year's budget.

If communities had been able to stockpile salt this winter, Shelley said, the surplus might have helped hold down the price of salt next year.

Presidents Day also nudged up costs, since the holiday meant automatic overtime pay for many of the workers who were asked to run the plows, even during normal work hours.

"It's probably been the most expensive week we've had in a few years," said Joe Lambing, director of public services in Green Township, which spent about $125,000.

The good news is that even with last week's storms, this winter is still better than last year. Hamilton County spent a total of $3.6 million on snow removal in 2014, about $3.4 million by the end of February.

This year, the total stands at a comparably low $1.3 million.

Another week or two like the one that followed Presidents Day could change that in a hurry. But spring is coming, and local officials are hoping for some luck.

"That was a big one," Hamilton County Engineer Ted Hubbard said of the storms last week. "But it's not the end of the world."

Jessica Frank contributed.