The Soldotna City Council passed an ordinance that would increase estimated revenues and appropriations by $85,000 in the general fund for additional snow removal services. The Biennial Operating Budget that was adopted in June 2021 includes $100,000 for FY22 snow removal services, but the amount spent for snow removal varies greatly from year to year, depending on the amount and timing of snow events.
City Manager Stephanie Queen says that FY22 has been one of the most expensive years in recent history for snow removal due to the frequency and timing of winter storms:
“When we put this item in the packet a few weeks ago, we included a memo from our streets and maintenance manager, Mr. Sundberg. He looked at where we were at in terms of the trucks to haul the snow, the pit fees to store the snow, and projected that we would need an additional $85,000 for the remainder of this snow season. At the time, we had spent approximately $30,000 beyond that $100,000. As of today, it’s somewhere closer to $50,000 or $60,000 beyond. Which is not something we normally do. We don’t normally spend beyond what’s been previously appropriated by the council but felt by communicating the situation to you and getting the support to continue hauling and dealing with the snow as it arrived was the most important priority for us.”
Queen states she felt that estimate was sufficient to get the city through the year:
“The one additional resource we have is the city’s contingency fund. Should we need to, and that’s actually a normal historical use of those contingency funds is for snow removal, in this case we felt we needed to request a specific appropriation, however, should this number not turn out to be right on target, we have our normal ability to utilize a small portion of those funds and we would report back to the council if that was the case.”
Sundberg wrote to council that the city’s historical average is well below the snowfall for 2021 into 2022.
The Ordinance unanimously passed the Soldotna City Council.
