By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com
Providence Mayor Jorge Elorza says the city is on point in its snow removal budget as the city endures another weekend winter storm.
“Our total snow budget for the entire winter is about $1.6 million, we’re about two-thirds of the way through our budget and we have about a third of the winter left, so we’re right on budget right now,” said Elorza.
During the most recent winter storm, Elorza said the city has deployed 103 units from plows to sanders to stem the tied of the falling snow.
One area of concern for Providence as been the accumulation of snow. Once the snow piles too high on the streets, crews remove piles and dump them across five locations in the city. But with temperatures consistently below freezing, the piles haven’t melted and continue to grow, and more snow is threatening to fall later in the week.
The Boston Globe has reported that Massachusetts’ capital is considering dumping its excess snow into the harbor to make room for more snowfall, but Elorza says he is reluctant to use this measure.
“We’ve been in touch with the Department of Environmental Management and from what I understand they might make that available to cities and towns. But look, that triggers issues of contamination and things like that; that’s an absolutely worst case scenario,” said Elorza.
The Mayor said getting the streets clear and safe is his highest priority.
