81°
CORTLANDT, N.Y. - Following the woeful winter of 2011, Cortlandt Town Comptroller Glenn Cestaro and Croton Village Manager Abraham Zambrano were bracing for an expensive 2012.
Their fears appeared to be coming true when the region was socked with the frightful late October snowstorm that left a lot of costly cleanup in its aftermath.
However, hardly a flake fell over the next five months, leaving Cortlandt and Croton with an unexpected snow budget surplus.
"It was a pleasant surprise," Cestaro said. "This is like phenomenal. I thought it was going to be really bad with the October snowstorm. Last year was an anomaly the other way. Every time we had precipitation it was snow."
Cortlandt budgeted $650,000 in its 2012 snow removal budget and has only spent $245,000---$175,000 of which was used to purchase a contract mandated minimum amount of salt, which it will put in storage for the fall.
Cestaro, who has worked for Cortlandt since 1988, said the unused $400,000 must remain in the highway fund but can be utilized for capital projects such as drainage and paving work.
"Obviously our goal is to try to hold on to as much as we can," he said. "We could have a wintry November or December."
Since Croton's budget year runs from June 1 to May 31, the October snow cost the village about $29,000. Nevertheless, of the $224,000 budgeted, Croton has $92,000 left over.
"I don't remember having a winter as warm as this one," said Zambrano, who joined Croton in 2004 as village treasurer and has served as village manager since 2008.
Zambrano said the village board could authorize transferring the $92,000 to another account or put it in a reserve account. He noted the tentative 2012-13 budget he just filed on March 20 includes the same $224,000 for snow.
"We have been pretty consistent over the years," he said. "We try to be very conservative about how we project."
Click here to follow Daily Voice Cortlandt and receive free news updates.
