Photo by Deb Gau From shovels to snowblowers and plow trucks, Marshall’s Main Street was a busy place on Tuesday morning, as people worked to clean up streets and sidewalks. By this time last winter, southwest Minnesota had already weathered major snowstorms, which carried costs for local street and county highway departments.

MARSHALL — Snow removal is never easy to budget for. It’s partly because you can’t predict the weather, and partly because snow is a possibility both at the beginning and end of each budget year, Marshall city and Lyon County staff said.

Up until this week, southwest Minnesota had been having an unusually mild fall and winter. It helped balance out the severe snowstorms from the winter of 2022-23, which carried costs in terms of supplies, equipment and work hours for snowplow crews, said Marshall Public Works Director Jason Anderson.

“There is a balancing effect,” Anderson said.

In milder weather, the city didn’t need to use as much sand or salt on the roads, and had less staff costs for plowing.

“It was a nice fall for us, budget-wise,” he said.

The city typically gets its supplies of salt and sand before the winter starts, Anderson said. He thought Marshall would be “in a good spot” to start 2024.

Lyon County Highway Engineer Aaron VanMoer said the mild fall gave the county time to stock up on supplies like sand and road salt.

“The nice weather also gave us a lot of time to catch up on service and maintenance of our equipment,” he said.

Severe winters mean increased time on the road for county snowplow drivers, as well as wear on equipment, VanMoer said. In 2023, costs of highway maintenance overtime and truck parts came in higher than budgeted for. The actual cost of county highway maintenance overtime in 2023 was 148% of what was budgeted, VanMoer said. In 2022, overtime costs were only 38% of what wast budgeted, he said.

The costs of wear of parts like tires and cutting edges were 137% of what was budgeted for 2023, and truck part costs were 162% of what was budgeted in 2023, VanMoer said.

“Surprisingly, salt spending was the same,” he said. Road salt cost the county $50,000 in 2022, and $51,000 in 2023, VanMoer said.

The excess costs in 2023 were due to the extended winter season, VanMoer said.

“However, December 2022 was a bad month for snow events as well,” he said. “It’s hard to make real definitive assertions because of the winter season splitting budget cycles.”

VanMoer and Anderson both said they try to plan for an average winter when budgeting for snow removal. However, it’s not easy to tell how snowy a given season will be.

Snowplows could be seen at work around Marshall and the area on Tuesday. VanMoer reminded drivers to be safe and not to crowd the plows out on the road.