Most say it will be a few days, until after things settle down, before they'll have a dollar figure on their expenses.
"Public safety employees, public works employees, they're required to work on snow days and turn out for weather events like this," Hall County spokeswoman Nikki Young said. "I imagine there will be some overtime."
The county had a three-day supply of sand and stone for roads but will now have to go back and re-stock because of this one event, according to public works director Ken Reardon, with most of the winter still ahead.
"We have probably exhausted our anticipated budget and will need to have additional budget to prepare for anything in the future," Reardon said.
Hall County Public Works Project Coordinator Kem Smith said Wednesday 50 workers have been on 24-hour shifts, alternating 12 hours on and 12 off, since the storm hit late Sunday night.
County offices reopened Wednesday after being closed Monday and Tuesday because of the storm but were operating with a limited number of workers.
"We were pretty closed to half staff but you know when we made the announcement we told people to 'please use your best judgement' (about coming in," Young said.
One of those days the offices were closed, Tuesday, is going to be used as this month's mandated, unpaid furlough day, meaning Tuesday, January 18, county offices will be open. They will be closed, however, as scheduled, Monday, for the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.
The Hall County Board of Commissioners instituted one day per month of unpaid leave for all employees as a cost-saving measure during the economic recession. The Board of Commissioners will officially approve the change in the furlough schedule at its next meeting on Jan. 27.
"I believe this is the best approach to serve our taxpayers by reducing interruption of county services as much as possible," Interim County Administrator Jock Connell said.
GAINESVILLE
Spoksmwoman Catiel Felts said the City of Gainesville has used 190 tons of gravel and 1,700 pounds of salt to clear the streets and that public works crews have been working around the clock to clear the roads. Other city departments have also chipped in with personnel to help in the road-clearing effort. (See separate story.)
"...the amount of materials that we've used to try to clear the roads for this storm (is) comparable to the one that occurred in 1993 (a blizzard in March)," Felts said.
She added that the type of salt that the city uses is environmentally friendly, meaning that it "will be melting and washing away."
Felts said the plan for clearing streets started in downtown with crews working their way outward, taking care of the most-heavily traveled streets first and then the secondary or side streets.
"Certainly Gainesville covers a large area so there some outlying neighborhoods that may or may not have been serviced yet but we are getting there..."
CORNELIA
In Cornelia, city manager Donald Anderson said road crews have been working 12-hour shifts since the storm started Sunday night. Anderson says since Cornelia is a smaller city, there are not enough road crews to work 24-hour shifts.
"We've put close to 20 tons of salt and gravel on the roads and wore two scrap blades out on our scrapers and had to go all the way to Atlanta yesterday (Wednesday) to pick up replacements," Anderson said. "...we've (also) already had to make two different orders for salt and gravel so I'm sure it's going to hurt what we had budgeted for."
But he said the city was fortunate that it had some materials left over from last year, so this storm may not be as costly for Cornelia as some other towns.
GWINNETT COUNTY
Gwinnett County spokesman Joe Sorenson said road maintenance crews have been and will continue to work in two shifts:
*5 a.m. to 7 p.m. - Five trucks equipped with snow plows, six motor graders and 15 sand/salt spreaders (depending on the specific need). Approximately 35 employees have been responding to calls, which have been received primarily from the County's 911 emergency call center.
*7 p.m. to 5 a.m. - Four trucks equipped with snow plows and three sand/salt spreaders (depending on the specific need). A minimum of eight employees are available to respond to emergency-related calls with the ability to call in more personnel if necessary.
*Traffic signal crews have had up to four crews handling any traffic signal outages, on-flash reports, emergencies, etc.
Sorenson also said staffing has not been full strength but neither has demand for service from walk-ins at the courthouse and other county offices.
"I'm looking at a parking lot now that is 15-20 percent full which is unusual for Gwinnett County."
THURSDAY MORNING COMMUTE
It was a bit easier for Gainesville and Hall County commuters Thursday morning, with most main traffic arteries mostly free of ice that covered road surfaces Tuesday morning making travel hazardous. One area state route that remained ice coated was Highway 211 between the Winder Highway and Braselton. Hilly terrain and unmelted ice reportedly made driving difficult.
The ice from Monday's winter storm was also causing problems for motorists trying to come in from country roads and residential streets. Once they arrived at work or to shop, they found many parking lots still frozen over.
Smith said his crews would get to those roads and streets as soon as possible, but the main roads were the priority. Smith said Public Works was responding to calls about problem roads
State work crews continued clearing roads. All interstates are passable with at least one lane open to traffic. GDOT crews continued working in the interior lanes of the interstate and conditions were hazardous in those lanes. GDOT asked motorists to use the outside lane as they traveled as the road crews worked to clear the inside lanes.
icy pavement greets customers Thursday morning at a Braselton convenience store
http://accesswdun.com/article/2011/1/235266