As a complement to today’s story”Worcester short on funds, but it’s not so bad“, we’d like to direct readers to Andrew Sullivan’s post “The Economics of Snow“, especially the link to “Zen and the Art of Snow Plow Maintenance.”
Worcester’s already spent
more than a million dollars on snow removal this winter, but that’s only a third of its budget. (And most years the budget does not cover the full cost of snow removal.) While the Telegram doesn’t mention the snow situation, ending the year with the snow budget in the black would not be the worst thing to happen to the city.
If you wonder where Worcester would fall on the chart in the Zen post, we use 10.36 snow plows per square mile — but that number includes contractors, and it’s unclear whether the chart is only looking at city-owned plows. If we only count city-owned equipment (60), it’s 1.55 plows per square mile, which is similar to Buffalo. We have an average snowfall of 67.6 inches, far less than Buffalo’s average of 93.6 inches.
Also of note: Chicago and DC have snowplow-tracking apps.