The normally welcome sight of plows pushing aside heavy snow will take longer to reach subdivisions and rural roads this winter.
Fewer plow drivers will hit the roads because of budget cuts in some local road commissions, including Ingham and Clinton counties.
"We've had to downsize our staff," said Bill Conklin, Ingham County Road Commission managing director. "We used to clean up in a day or day-and-a-half, but it will take two to three days this year."
Ingham County has 39 driver positions, down from 43 at the beginning of the year.
Clinton County is in a similar situation, said Joe Pulver, managing director of the Clinton County Road Commission. The crew will be working with 31 driving positions this year - five fewer than last year.
"We're operating under the same revenue we had back in 1997," Pulver said. "Our buying power is probably back to what it was in the 1980s."
Eaton County is in the same boat, but hasn't had to cut any driver positions this year, said Blair Ballou, engineer-manager of the Eaton County Road Commission.
He said if more snow hits the county than during last year's mild winter, residents could be faced with plowing delays.
In an effort to streamline its budget, Lansing's public service department took in a consolidated Parks and Recreation operations and maintenance staff - meaning all plowing, mowing and maintenance is done by the public service department, said Chad Gamble, public service director.
No funding increase
The departments' snow plowing is funded by the Michigan Transportation Fund, which relies primarily on a state gas tax of 19 cents per gallon, a 15-cent-per-gallon diesel tax and vehicle registration fees.
The gas tax hasn't increased since 1997 and road officials are concerned that as the use of electric vehicle increases, funding will continue to fall.
"The bottom line is: It's very frustrating for us," Pulver said. "We want to be able to do our job and people call and are concerned that their road is icy or not getting plowed out, or in the summertime their road is rough or full of holes and we just aren't able to do our job.
"I'm concerned if things don't change soon in 2012 we're just going to be flat broke, and I don't know what we'll do."
has been sliding for several years because people use less fuel now than a decade ago, Ballou said.
"When you really think about it the road network over the past 14 to 15 years has gotten a tremendous decrease in the amount of funding and it's concerning," Gamble said.
Any gas tax increase would have to come through the Legislature, said Bill Shreck, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation.
"We're facing the same challenges they are and we know they are having a difficult time with the way prices for salt and other materials have gone up in last five years," he said.
Higher costs
While road commissions aren't seeing increases from the Transportation Fund, they are seeing costs rise.
Salt has gone from $24.89 a ton in 2004 to $49.17 a ton this year, the cost of snow plows has doubled to $200,000 each in the past decade and fuel costs also are on the rise.
"(The tax) pays for humans, not just machinery, and the health care and the wage increases and salt increases and petroleum increases, and with deteriorating roads and less money to maintain them it's been very difficult," Gamble said.
The funding gap leads to cuts in other, less safety-related areas, such as summer road work.
"In order to fund an adequate level of service for winter maintenance we cut what we would maintain in the summer," Ballou said.
http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20101211/NEWS07/12110320/Budget-cuts-will-delay-cleanup-after-snowfall