According to Mayor Steve Noble, the city spent at least $45,000 on overtime related to Winter Storm Stella, and the tab could climb higher. The steep price tag, however, was offset by the announcement that the state Department of Transportation, which pitched in with snow removal in the days following the bruising March 14 Nor’Easter, would not charge the city for its services.
Not bad, considering Poughkeepsie’s bill was ten times as much.
Winter Storm Stella dumped nearly two feet of snow on the city over the course of about 15 hours and was accompanied by high winds, which knocked out power lines and rendered roads virtually impassable. Noble said the Department of Public Works, which worked round-the-clock shifts for three days to cope with the storm, had billed $38,000 in overtime during the most recent payroll period. Another $7,000 in overtime was billed by the city’s fire department. Noble said he was awaiting payroll reports from Parks and Rec and the KPD before calculating a final tab. Noble added that the fiscal impact of the storm was offset somewhat by a relatively mild winter and the DOT’s decision not to bill the city.
“The storm put us just at or maybe slightly over our 2017 snow removal budget,” said Noble.