Road commissions preparing for more snow - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(02/25/13) - Mid-Michigan road commissions aren't wasting any time preparing for whatever Mother Nature brings us.

"The nice thing about it is when you know these storms are coming, you get a day in advance to check your trucks out, get them all ready to go. So we're, when that storm tracks in, we're, we're out in, in force," said Saginaw County Road Commission Managing Director Dennis Borchard.

In Saginaw County, those storm preps focus on truck maintenance. That meant emptying out old salt, washing the trucks, and then filling them up with salt again.

A handful of workers are also checking each of truck's oil pressure, tire pressure, the lug nuts, and the actual mechanism that releases the salt.

They have more than 40 trucks in the fleet to prepare.

This is all so they can be ready to go when the snow hits.

But while they track they storm, they're also tracking this year's budget. "Any type of storm, you're using salt, and it can burn up a budget real quick, but this year we're, it's been real intermittent and we're pleased with, so far," Borchard said. "Right now we're doing well."

Borchard adds this comes on the heels of balanced budget, last year. "If everything goes well, we're heading in that same direction."

Borchard will be closely keeping an eye on factors like overtime for drivers, fuel, and salt.

Other counties are cautiously optimistic too.

"Our budget is tracking like it did, like for a normal winter. Last year was an anomaly. It was extremely warm," said Jim Lillo, engineer manager for the Bay County Road Commission.

Bay County is proceeding with caution, despite using more salt than last year.

Genesee County is on-budget as well. Even after a 20 percent spike in diesel prices, and an 8 percent increase for salt prices.

Saginaw County has the green light to move forward as-is, having used $20,000 less compared to the same time last year.

And in Tuscola County, the road commission is also ahead of last year's budget.

But they all caution, winter is far from over.

"We've had big snow storms, you know, a week or two into April," Lillo said.

Any potential savings from the winter snow removal budget, will simply be rolled over into summer projects. Which many say is where they spend the bulk of their budget.