Unseasonably warm weather this winter means bad business for the city of Iola.
With temperatures dipping below freezing only a handful of days since Old Man Winter arrived in mid-December, Iolans aren’t using as much gas and electricity to heat their homes and apartments — and City Hall is feeling it.
City Administrator Carl Slaugh said city revenues from gas and electricity sales won’t meet the levels of the last two years if warm weather holds up.
In January 2010, a month that met winter expectations, the city brought in $1.57
million in energy sales. During the same month in 2011, $1.285 million was brought in from energy sales. This year, January energy sales have fallen to about $1.08 million.
But with lower temperatures forecasted for February and a ways to go before spring officially arrives, Slaugh said gas and electricity revenues could bounce back.
“We just figure its going to hit us sooner or later,” Slaugh said.
Energy revenues are only half the story. Anticipating five to six snow storms per winter, the city saves money when roads don’t have to be cleared of snow and ice regularly.
“Well there certainly is savings when you don’t have to have crews out plowing snow,” Slaugh said, referring to the $10,000 budgeted annually for road-treating materials like salt and calcium.
Though he couldn’t give an exact figure, Corey Schinstock, assistant city administrator, said the savings from a mild winter go beyond materials. A typical snow fall requires about 30 hours of labor from city crews. When Iola experiences winters like this one, the city doesn’t pay as much overtime or purchase as much fuel for city vehicles, he said.
Because weather cycles are too unpredictable and spring too far away, Schinstock couldn’t specify what impact the mild winter would have on the city’s budget and revenues.
“I don’t know that it’s a hit or a loss in any means,” he said. “Revenues aren’t coming in as strong as we thought but also the spending side wouldn’t be as high.”
BILL KING, director of Allen County Public Works, told county commissioners Tuesday after “getting hammered the last two winters” with snow and severe cold weather, his crews were “tickled with this winter’s weather.”
Forecasts are for mild temperatures and relatively dry weather to continue well into February.
The all-time low temperature of 24 degrees below zero occurred the night of Feb. 10 last winter and a gigantic snow, totaling over 20 inches, fell early that month.
The county has 125 tons of salt on hand for road treatment, King said, “but we have it under tarp and it’ll keep just fine until next winter.”
