With the Mid-Michigan record snowfall in December, the thaw last week has helped the Isabella County Road Commission.

Tony Casali, directing manager of the Isabella County Road Commission, said the recent weeks of warm weather have helped to dramatically lower expenses in Isabella County.

“However, when we’re not plowing, we have to worry about potholes and other road damages,” Casali said. “There is a lot more patching going on – we have four crews out on a daily basis doing just that.”

Casali said the Isabella County Road Commission has gone over their budget each month, but the money for the year has not run out yet.

“We don’t have a lot left,” Casali said. “We have already used 80 percent of our yearly budget,”

Last year’s average budget was about $1 million, Casali said, and expects it will come to about the same this year.

“There was a lot of snow early this year, last year there was a lot more smaller snow storms,” he said. “Either way, it comes out to about the same cost.”

Brian Wendling, directing manager of the Saginaw County Road Commission, said that Saginaw County is catching up from the severe December weather.

“It’s hard to say how we’re doing until winter is completely over,” Wendling said. “We still have about six weeks of possible severe weather.”

Saginaw County’s budget this fiscal year began on Jan. 1 and they are already over budget.

“Our last fiscal year, we overspent by about $400,000 dollars,” Wendling said.

Saginaw deploys GPS

Saginaw County began using a global positioning system last week to make drivers aware of where plow trucks have been.

“We think it has the potential for long term cost savings,” he said. “We’re hoping for a 20 percent reduction of salt usage.”

Wendling also said that the ultimate goal is to increase the overall service the county provides to the people.

“It will be easier for us to route our trucks and to complete requests when people call them in,” he said.

Casali said that Isabella County has not given much thought to using the new GPS system.

“Saginaw is bigger, and here we are struggling to replace our vehicles,” Casali said.

The Isabella County Road Commission is focusing more on bringing their equipment up to a level of quality and reliability.

“We are not in the financial position to add the GPS system to our vehicles at this time,” Casali said.

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E-mail the author: Vanessa Fayz