Major eastern Idaho cities doing alright with snow removal budgets

With another winter storm moving into eastern Idaho, cities across the region are preparing their snow crews in case things get slick. For the most part, the larger cities still have the funds necessary to do so.

“Right now, we’re sitting at about 90 percent of our materials budget,” said Tom Kirkman, the street operations superintendent for Pocatello. “So we’re doing pretty good for this time of year.”

Other city snow removal budgets across the region were similar to Pocatello’s: almost, but not entirely used up.

“On years we don’t spend it, it just rolls into our construction programs,” said John Millar, the public works director for Rexburg. “This year we spent most of it, but we didn’t overspend it.”

“We’ve stayed within our budget so far,” said Vaughn Key, the street coordinator superintendent for Blackfoot. “Our budget works a little different that a lot of other cities. Equipment, manpower, and fuel comes from our street budget.”

Crews are preparing for the current winter storm, but some cities might get off easy as road temperatures are relatively warm.

“Our road crews are on notice. They can be called at a moment’s notice, but we’ll wait and see with this storm,” said Millar. “We’ll play it by ear and hopefully save a bit of taxpayer money.”

Idaho Falls did not have budget information available for KIDK/KIFI in time for this story. The city does plan to release those numbers at a public meeting on Wednesday, March 30.