A light snowfall so far, but plowing bills add up

By Charles Sercombe
Before the question could even be asked, DPW Superintendent Martin Ladd begged off saying: “Brother, don’t even go there.”
There?
Yeah, there, as in winter, as in you know what happens in winter: snow.
There, we said it, maybe we even jinxed the city.
But let it be known, we weren’t the only one thinking of snow and how the city has gotten off relatively light in the snowplowing department.
At a recent City Council meeting, Councilmember Cathie Gordon dug into the subject and hurled a figurative snowball toward City Manager Bill Cooper over the quality of service and charges the city has received so far this season. Let’s just say she’s not happy with the contractor, and icily questioned how the city could have been charged $15,000 so far this season.
To set the record straight, the city administration isn’t too happy with the service so far and has warned the contractor he has one more chance to get it right before the contract is tossed and a new contractor is hired.
But to further set the record straight, the cost of plowing and salting isn’t cheap.
The city required three saltings and one plowing so far. The worst snowfall was about three inches on Jan. 7-8. Unfortunately, that snowfall first required a salting, then a plowing and then a salting again.
Each plowing costs $3,000 and each salting costs $5,000.
The good news is that compared to this time last year, the city is getting off light. And as for the remainder of winter, it’s anyone’s guess what kind of dumping we’ll experience.
According to the Farmer’s Almanac, this winter will be slightly dryer than last year and overall colder.
For you warm weather fans out there, sorry, the Almanac is predicting a cooler than usual summer, but it will be sunnier than usual. At least September and October are supposed to be warmer than usual, or so says the Almanac.
Which reminds us, we really do miss Sonny Elliot. (Don’t know about this legendary Detroit weatherman? Google his name.)