Estimates are in and according to officials in Bonney Lake, last month’s snow and ice storm cost the city more than $235,000.
Bonney Lake officials have prepared a report for the county as part of preliminary damage assessment detailing the impact on the city’s budget. Reports from all cities inPierce County will be compiled into a report that will go to the state in hopes of receiving a Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster declaration that could allow municipalities to recoup money on storm costs.
“This is our small part in that overall event,” Bonney Lake Executive Assistant Brian Hartsell said.
Hartsell said the area received a disaster designation during the 2008 Christmas storm that resulted in a reimbursement of between $15,000 and $40,000.
Hartsell said the city’s initial estimate of $235,740 is most likely on the high end and that city officials will not know the actual amounts for several months. Hartsell listed debris removal as an amount the city does not know yet because it is still collecting tree limbs to be ground and removed.
“Ideally, it won’t cost that much but we felt we needed to cover ourselves,” he said.
The top cost to Bonney Lake is debris removal, estimated at $148,249. The second-highest cost is in public utilities at $78,096.
Much of the money comes int he way of hours and overtime to city employees, many of whom worked around the clock during the event, clearing roads of snow and ice and then clearing them again of fallen tree limbs and debris.
According to the report, the primary issue to Bonney Lake which forced the city to rely on generators to keep the water and sewer systems operational.
The city was also forced to keep staff available to move generators to the approximately 90 grinder pumps maintained by the city, to keep the systems attached to those pumps from backing up while power was out.
“Some of it is overtime, some of it is straight time,” Public Works Director Dan Grigsby said of the costs.
Overtime costs alone are estimated at more than $8,500, though the vast majority of the money, approximately $135,000, is expected to go toward the removal and grinding of debris.
Grigsby said the costs for a storm such as the one this past month come from various lines in the city’s budget, but said the city plans for events like this when preparing the budget, though the sheer size and scope of January’s snow and ice was unexpected.
“We budget for a couple of storms a year, but nothing to this extent,” he said. “For storms like this, it’s hard to budget for.”
Grigsby said it was too early in the year to tell the full effect on the department’s budget, but said funds would most likely be moved from other areas to cover these costs, possibly resulting in some preventative maintenance work being pushed until the next budget cycle, which is reflected int he city’s damage assessment.
Officials are continuing to collect information on the total costs of the storm. When completed, the state will submit a full report to the federal government in hopes of receiving the disaster declaration.
