SNOW DAY MAKE-UP?Whether or not days missed due to snowy weather must be made up is being decided this week, according to officials with Catoosa County Public School System.”We have three days built into the calendar for weather-related closures,” school spokeswoman Marissa Brower said. “Students have missed five days, so how to handle the situation will not be decided until classes resume.”Last year’s 180-day school year included four half-days and four weather days.Eliminating the half-days and one weather day resulted in a 175-day school year that meets state requirements for class time while saving about $3 million, Brower said.What to do about making up missed class days is not Catoosa’s problem alone, most systems north of Macon face similar circumstances and the legislature might offer some relief.”We forgave four days last year,” Brower said.
That there are costs related to the paralyzing blanket of snow and ice that covered the region last week is a given.
How much is unknown.
Georgia Department of Transportation officials might estimate spending up to $2 million a day cleaning up the winter storm that dumped ice and snow across the state, according to wire service report.
Locally, the price tag is far lower.
“Paying some overtime and buying some more sand is not going to impact us that much,” said Fort Oglethorpe City Manager Ron Goulart.
Goulart said the city’s two snowplow equipped dump trucks and sand spreader went into action as the first snowflakes started to fall Jan. 9 and had “logged more than 500 miles” by midday Wednesday, Jan. 12.
“We knew if they didn’t clear the slush off the road it would cause a problem with refreezing,” he said. “Crews did a fantastic job getting it off the streets.”
Clearing streets was a job that left workers weary and led to the heavy-duty pickup that spreads sand having its transmission fail.
“It cost between $1,800 and $2,000 to replace, but we had it back in service within a day,” Goulart said.
Throughout the county, the story was similar.
“We started at 10 p.m. Sunday and have been running 24/7 since then,” Catoosa County Public Works Director Buster Brown said last Wednesday. “We’ve used everybody from public works and have been bringing people from the recreation and maintenance departments just to plow snow.”
BATTLING ICE
The highest priority was getting main roads open and then move on to subdivisions and side roads as soon as possible, but not having a break in the weather for several days compounded the problem, he said.
“You can plow snow, you cannot plow ice,” Brown said.
County crews used three tandem trucks and three pickups (better on narrow side roads and streets narrowed by parked cars) to have nearly snow-free streets by Thursday afternoon, he said. That did not please everyone.
“We have been in subdivisions where people ask us not to clear roads so they can sled on it – that upsets everybody else in the neighborhood,” Brown said.
Though their surfaces may look normal after losing their icy covering, Brown said it may be spring or beyond before some damage from the storm surfaces.
“What happens to the roads is that once the moisture gets under the asphalt and freezes, it will cause pockets that then lead to potholes,” he said.
The losses in productivity, sales tax collections and redirecting family budgets to cover increased energy use (schools being closed meant higher demand for heating homes) may never be known.
And it will be several weeks, if ever, before the full extent of spending to cover costs of overtime, purchasing salt or sand and repairing equipment is known.
Help paying the bill may be on the way.
“It is not available yet but we are working on that information for GEMA [Georgia Emergency Management Agency]” said Carl Henson, the county’s finance director. “Local governments have been asked to provide this information to determine if the state is near hitting the cost threshold requirements for a federal declaration.”