The Aurora City Council greenlighted a plan Monday to start saving up more money for the city’s snow and ice removal services, including for residential streets. But some councilmembers cautioned residents against expecting their neighborhood streets to be cleared every year and emphasized the savings will be “a drop in the bucket” of overall snow removal costs.
The resolution, sponsored by Councilmember Francoise Bergan, passed unanimously Monday. It directs the city manager to rollover unspent funds in the snow and ice removal budget — part of the general fund — to the following year. The funds will continue going toward snow and ice removal costs, including residential streets “to the extent the budget allows,” city documents say.
“We have a lot of residents who were concerned about the snow removal and ice buildup in our city,” Bergan said, adding Aurora has limited financial resources to address residential plowing.
The new plan will kickstart with the 2024 budget supplemental process.
The intent is not to solve the dilemma of constituents’ desire for residential street plowing, Bergan said. Council is having additional conversations about that matter. The funds are meant to help alleviate the burden of increasing materials costs, such as for chemicals, and possibly allow for contracted services, Bergan said.
Councilmember Juan Marcano asked staff about how much surplus the city might expect each year.
City staff analyzed a decade of funding and found the annual surplus for snow and ice removal varied considerably each year, city Budget Manager Greg Hays said. In recent years, 2020 to 2022, amounts have fluctuated between $120,000 on up to $380,000 in 2021.
“We’ve had some years where it’s gone completely the other way,” he said.
In 2015, the city was over budget by $2 million, he said. Taking that outlier from the equation, Aurora is averaging about $100,000 in annual savings, he said.
Councilmember Alison Coombs asked what would happen in heavy snow years when the city might expect increased costs and a deficit in the snow removal budget. In the past, the city has covered those expenses through the supplemental budget process, Hays said. Moving forward he would use this pot of money.
Marcano also expressed interest in funding more trucks and chemicals that could be repurposed for summertime use, and helping the city’s water department revive an in-house concrete program. Bergan said the city council should consider those additional capital needs separately from the snow and ice removal resolution.
Mayor Pro Tem Curtis Gardner was leery of Bergan’s proposal for a couple reasons, he said. The average amount of annual savings doesn’t equate to many miles of roads plowed, he said. The full program budget runs between $2.5 and $3 million a year, Hays said.
“I’m more than willing to try this,” Gardner said, but also cautioned residents against expecting their residential streets to be plowed every year as a result of the new appropriations.
Funding restrictions aside, an average snow season in Colorado might produce one major snowstorm, “if any,” that are significant enough to require residential street plowing. Most storms melt quickly, he said.
Gardner also asked if the city council could take action to use the fund for other needs if Aurora experiences several years of dry winters and the fund began to accrue a hefty savings, which Hays said would be possible. Councilmember Dustin Zvonek urged the council to use its own contingency funding to help plow residential streets, something Bergan expressed support for.
Bergan said if the city does move forward with allowing metro districts and homeowners associations to begin offering residential snow removal, this fund will provide equity for the entire city.
The city is still weighing options to address residential snow and ice removal. At council’s February study session, city staff presented options for both an in-house program and a program contracting the work out.
