Snow removal crews are working round the clock. But can Cedar Rapids afford the over time?

Last winter was harsh hitting city crews hard in January and February. Like the snow, the overtime piled up and then all of the snow melted leaving an even bigger problem: the Floods of '08.

City crews were on overdrive. Their overtime for just one week during the floods was more than 16 thousand dollars.

"We have not at any time been told to restrict our use in preparation for overtime for support of operations," says Craig Hanson, Cedar Rapids' streets operations manager.

It's a huge sigh of relief for many CR drivers.

"They need the late hours to get the roads clear in the morning for people to travel and go to work," says Ben Ortiz.

Starting on December 1st street crews began a three shift operation. Fifty workers working on day shift, ten on both second and third. Hanson says he will allocate more workers if needed.

Another cost being thrown at the city: replacing all of their snow removal equipment that fell victim to the flood. The city lost eight of its trucks, a total of more than 900 thousand dollars worth of equipment. Seven of those trucks have been replaced. However, the city is still waiting for their speed loader.

The speed loader is used to remove snow in the down town area so that snow banks do not occur and more parking spaces are left available. The speed loader is supposed to be in by early January.

Hanson says replacing the destroyed equipment was done at a fraction of the cost because they bought slightly used.

"I'm more than happy to use something that is slightly used that saves us tens of thousands of dollars."

No tally yet as to how much overtime has been used for snow removal since the beginning of this winter. But city workers say they are being careful with their usage.

Snow Removal Costs