Oklahoma City Street Maintenance Budget Tight

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The last two months of winter weather are putting a strain on Oklahoma City's street maintenance budget.

Street maintenance superintendent Mike DeGiacomo has seen expenditures for overtime and street clearing materials steadily increase. DeGiacomo's normal budget for ice and snow removal materials is $120,000. He's already spent that--plus another $250,000 for an additional 4,000 tons of materials. But he says he won't ever run out of salt, sand or asphalt.

The people who work to maintain the city's streets and roads know they'll be busy every winter salting, sanding and pothole fixing. But they probably didn't expect they'd be this busy this early this winter.

"Of course we spent that money early this year, right after the first of the year, to get that material in so we would have it available once the storms hit," said DeGiacomo. "Of course, subsequent to that time we spent another $250,000 ordering another 4,000 tons of material."

Clearing the streets and patching potholes are the top responsibilities of street maintenance. The super says he'll shift money around in his budget if necessary to make sure those jobs get done.

"I can almost guarantee you we'll have salt for the roadways, and we'll have asphalt to patch the potholes," DeGiacomo said.

DeGiacomo said he didn't know how much his department has spent on overtime this year.