Warm Winter Brings Big Savings

An unusually warm winter is saving cities around Ohio big money. 

Some areas have spent little to no money clearing snow off the roads. In the City of Zanesville they’ve sent only one truck out this season. 

"It was a night when it was cold and we had a truck drop water on one of our bridges, it froze and we had to put salt out, so that’s the only truck we’ve had out this year," said Mayor Jeff Tilton.

Mayor Tilton said each year the city spends around $250,000 on salt. Under contract they’re required to buy a percentage of salt each year. So, while savings from the warm weather won’t come from the purchase of salt, the city is saving in other areas like overtime and fuel costs.

"Last year between our first snow fall and January 1st we had 15 hours of overtime. 100 gallons of fuel used and a 150 tons of salt," explained Tilton. "In 2013 between our first snow fall and January 1st we had 728 hours of overtime, 2,500 gallons of fuel and 750 tons of salt used in that period of time.

The hope is a mild winter will also mean less repairs to roadways.

"Another thing with it not being as cold this year and not having the freezing and thawing pot hole problems should be as bad as it has been for the last 2 years," said Tilton.

Mayor Tilton said the city is also looking into the possibility of building another salt bin in the future so more salt can be stored.