Megan Miller
CUMBERLAND — Snow doesn’t stop for state funding cuts, but road maintenance officials in Western Maryland still had to prepare for winter on tighter budgets.
Garrett County Roads General Superintendent Jay Moyer said that cutbacks in state highway user funds meant the county had to find other ways of funding its battle against winter weather.
Garrett halted its paving projects at their halfway points and has been holding that money in reserve in case the winter gets rough and it’s needed for road maintenance, Moyer explained. The county began that practice in 2008.
“We’re fully budgeted for our operations, but we like to set some money aside in case we get an extra hard winter,” he said. “If we don’t, we use that money to resume our paving operations in the spring until the end of the budget year.”
Moyer said the county budgeted about $750,000 for antiskid and has spent about $292,000 so far. About 20,000 tons of the material is stockpiled at each of the three garages, located in Oakland, Accident and Grantsville, and more is purchased if it’s needed throughout the season. Last winter, the county bought 101,000 tons of antiskid.
Garrett County also makes antiskid and fuel available to municipalities for purchase at county cost, Moyer said. It’s an offer that’s been open in the past, but he expects that it might be especially popular this winter, as municipalities feel the statewide funding pinch.
“We’re anticipating that this weekend may be the beginning of when we see those requests from municipalities, because of the storm that’s supposed to hit,” Moyer said. “We’re going to share with them and help them out as we can.”
Moyer said one of the largest expenses of the winter is equipment maintenance. The county has a large fleet of about 50 snowplows as well as graders, snowblowers and loaders that all suffer wear and tear. Moyer said drivers and operators have been cautioned to be extra careful with the equipment.
“We’ve got to make this equipment last through the next couple of years,” he said. “Hopefully by then the state budget will turn around and we’ll get our share of the state highway user funds again.”
In Allegany County, Roads Division Chief Jim Lashley also said funding constraints have forced his department to monitor its costs more closely, especially spending on materials and overtime. But recent snowstorms have made it difficult to cut back.
“It’s started out pretty bad so far,” he said. “We’ve been out two weekends and it looks like there’s going to be a third weekend. But our job is to protect the public.”
Allegany County crews must clear snow from about 550 miles of roadway, working from four garages, located in Cumberland, Frostburg, Oldtown and Little Orleans. The Cumberland and Frostburg garages operate seven snow-clearing routes each, while the outlying garages operate five.
In addition to the trucks on those 24 routes, the county also keeps a few spare trucks at each garage and has graders and front-end loaders that can be called into service if the weather gets especially nasty.
Lashley said he trimmed this year’s budget estimates for salt and antiskid from about $200,000 to about $150,000, but money can be shifted around from other budget items if those materials run low.
“We’re in pretty good shape right now,” he said. “The guys do a real good job of controlling the amount of material they put out. We’re all filled up with salt and antiskid and ready for whatever comes our way.”
Contact Megan Miller at mmiller@times-news.com.
