Blizzard buries city's snow budget

Last month's blizzard blew through the city's entire annual $5.2 million snow budget - and a few million more, according to city estimates.

Philadelphia spent $8.5 million to clean up the 22.5 inches of snow dumped the weekend of Jan. 23, city spokesman Mike Dunn said.

The snowstorm was one of Mayor Kenney's first tests. He had been in office less than three weeks when he had to oversee the snow emergency.

His administration estimates it spent $1.7 million in employee overtime, $1.4 million on salt, and $5.4 million on contractors.

Kenney said he treated the blizzard as an important measure of his new administration.

"Here's the deal on snow: The first storm out of the box, the credibility of the administration is at risk," he said Thursday. "And I have other big fish to fry when it comes to big programs. And if I can't get the snow up, what the hell am I going to do with pre-K and community schools and everything else?"

The city has not yet decided how it will make up the additional $3.3 million spent on the storm. Dunn said officials would wait until the winter storm season is over to determine how much more money is needed to cover for storm cleanups in fiscal year 2016, which ends June 30.

The $8.5 million falls in the middle of the pack when it comes to blizzard cleanup costs.

The December 2009 blizzard, which dumped 23.2 inches on the city, had a price tag of $3.4 million, according to reports at the time.

But the total spent that 2009-10 winter season was $16 million. That included the February 2010 storm that left 28.5 inches of snow on the ground.

The biggest snowfall on record for Philadelphia was the blizzard of January 1996, which dropped 31 inches. The cleanup then cost the city $11.3 million, according to a city controller's audit of that year's snow-fighting operation. In today's dollars, that would be $17.6 million.

That same audit, done by Controller Jonathan Saidel, found that between 1986 and 1995, the city averaged 16.7 inches of snow annually and paid an average of $2.9 million (or $4.3 in today's dollars) in snow cleanup efforts.

As for this year's blizzard, the cost could change slightly from the estimated $8.5 million. Dunn said the five contractors are still filing their invoices.

The administration would not disclose the contractors' hourly rates. It asked the Inquirer to file a Right-to-Know request for the contracts that would contain that information. That request has not yet been answered.

The rates and contracts had been set by the Nutter administration. New bids will go out this year, Dunn said.

The contractors are hired when a big snowstorm hits to help the Streets Department clear the city's 2,500 miles of streets.

"The city does not have equipment dedicated to snow. ... For example, sanitation compactors are a significant benefit for plowing; however, they do not have any salting capacity," Dunn said. "Contractors provide equipment that we do not have or do not have in scale for the demand. They provide salting support, significant small equipment support for residential streets, as well as extra-large equipment required to remove snow."

cvargas@phillynews.com215-854-5520@InqCVargas

Staff writer Chris Brennan contributed to this article.