Cities run out of snow removal money

The parade of storms so far this winter has drained snow removal budgets in two of Rhode Island's largest cities. Both cities say there is no money left in their budgets to remove all the upcoming snow. And there are still almost two months left of winter ahead.

"We're about $40,000 over budget," said Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian.

It's only the beginning of February, and the first snow storm of the month is moving in. In Warwick, the city's $400,000 budget for snow removal, is gone. The city's mayor is now hoping for some flexibility in other accounts to move funds around.

"The big issues has been we've spendt over $110,000 on salt, and that's all we had budgeted. So, anything we have to spend now, comes out of other accounts," said Avedisian.

Things look even worse in Cranston. They've blasted through their $440,000 winter budget and their $250,000 contingency funds. Eyewitness News has learned other city services could be affected as a result.

"You might look at hours at libraries, we may have to look at senior services programs. And, as the mayor said, everything is on the table depending on the governor's budget cuts," says Robin Schutt, Spokesperson for Mayor Allan Fung.

Both cities are waiting to see if those cuts will carve into their city's budgets. They are keeping an eye to the sky, and keeping their fingers crossed that old man winter starts to ease up.

"As the season moves, when we get into February and March, and we start calculating, and we find out what the governor is going to do, then we may have to inact some very, very swift and sharp moves," added Schutt.

Warwick and Cranston are trying to to pre-plan before storms to avoid high overtime costs. May DPW crews were out clearing storm drains and chipping away at any remaining ice before the next round of snow moves in.