Severe Snow Has NYC Sanitation Dept. Seeing Red
This winter season's harsh snowstorms resulted in New York City's Department of Sanitation to go over its budget by $75 million dollars.
Its allotted snow budget is $57 million dollars. Sanitation Commissioner John Doherty explained, "So you're always gearing up, you're stopping your collection operation, you're getting ready for snow and sometimes you gotta go out and spend a lot of time on snow and we work a lot of weekends between clearing the snow and catching up on our waste collection and recycling collection. So that burned up a lot of the budget". He believes the funds used on snow removal could reach the $132 million dollar mark.
A surplus of money is used in storm forecast preparations before snow actually hits. This resulted in this season's false prediction of 14 inches of snow, while only a quarter of an inch actually fell. During severe snowfalls, crews generate overtime as they are required to work lengthy 12-hour workdays. The Sanitation Commissioner went on to add: "I always told people you don't manage a snowstorm by the budget. The budget will come after. You do things as efficiently and effectively as you can, but some years it's gonna be more expensive than others."
John Doherty has operated as New York's Sanitation Commissioner since 2002. He began his career as a sanitation worker in 1960 and held a variety of crucial postings before becoming its director. Doherty first held the posting between 1994-1998. The longtime veteran officially declared his resignation last week which will be implemented on March 28th.
