With 7 to 14 Inches of Snow Expected, Highway Dept. is Ready to Roll

With a National Weather Service winter storm warning in effect beginning at 7:00 Tuesday night - expected to bring with it anywhere from 7 to 14 inches - Riverhead Highway Superintendent George “Gio” Woodson said Monday that his department is all set to handle whatever comes his way.

“We’ve got everything we need, and if the trucks stay healthy, we’ll be fine,” Woodson said. “The biggest problem we have is wind. That’s the only thing that really hurts us out here.”

The NWS is predicting wind gusts ranging from 25 to 35 miles per hour.

Woodson said his crews would begin sanding and salting as soon as there’s a half-inch of snow on the ground. He said they would use straight salt on main roads and a mixture of salt and sand on side roads and in residential developments.

“You use salt on the main roads because there’s more traffic, and traffic seems to work in the salt better than on less-traveled roads,” Woodson explained. He said a mixture of salt and sand is a bit more expensive than straight salt, but provides a better grip.  

The is also in good shape financially, according to Sue Beal, the senior administrative assistant who handles the books for the department.

Beal said Monday that the storm that hit on Dec. 27 and 28 cost the town approximately $36,000 in overtime and $45,000 in salt, all of which came out of the department’s budget for 2010.

She said an additional $10,000 in overtime was accrued for the two days following the storm for final clean-up due to the severity of the storm, an amount that has yet to be paid out.

“We’re in pretty good condition right now,” she said. “We have enough money in the budget to handle a couple of storms, but if they keep coming, they’re going to deplete us.”

She said the department’s budget for overtime in 2011 totals $100,000, which is used not only for snow removal but for any situations requiring extra man-hours.

Beal said there is another $100,000 in her 2011 budget for what she called “contractual expenses,” which pays for salt but also for the replacement of blades and other parts that  need replacement on plow trucks.

She said the department’s deputy superintendent, Mark Gajowski, just placed an order for another 500 tons of salt at a cost of approximately $35,000, or about $70 per ton.

Woodson said he eagerly awaits the completion of a new salt barn to replace the town barns that were taken down earlier this year.

“The old salt barns, when I tapped them with an excavator, just both fell down,” Woodson said. “Rather than have someone get hurt or get sued, we’re now storing salt outside under a tarp.”

He said that, depending on the weather, he expects the new salt barn to be completed in early February. “We’ve been working on this salt barn deal for two years,” he said. “It is what it is.

“This should have been done five years ago,” said Woodson, noting that the town board only gave approval for a new barn several months ago.

According to the latest forecasts, snow should begin falling at around 6 p.m. Tuesday and continue through the middle of the day Wednesday.

Depending on the track of the storm, forecasts suggest that the East End could receive less snow than the rest of Long Island, with snow turning to rain sometime Wednesday morning.