Less snow plowing, more road maitenence
ALGER COUNTY -- While much of the U-P welcomes warmer weather, the Alger County Road Commission does not. For them, it means less money.
"You might think that we would conserve on salt and sand because of our lack of snow fall," said engineer manager Bob Lindbeck. "However, freezing rain that we've had this winter in comparison to 2008 to 2009 has used a lot of salt even on our county road system."
With warm temperatures limiting snowfall, the commission has less plow work to do, so that means they don't need as many extra workers. They laid off their temporary snow plowers a few weeks earlier than usual to conserve money.
"We need more money for everything so we need to be conscious of our costs," said Lindbeck.
The commission is now refocusing their work towards earlier road maintenance and pothole repairs.
"We're going from plowing snow to patching potholes. March is a transition month for all of us," said equipment operator Harry Lindquist.
Think the extra time to repair potholes is a good thing? Think again; while the road commission is reimbursed for the work they do on state roads by the MDOT, all of the work that they do on county roads such as pothole repairs all come directly out of their budget.
"No one pays us to repair potholes on our county system so our monthly Michigan transportation funding is all we have to operate," said Lindbeck.
For now, the road commission is doing their best to do more with less; less funding and a smaller staff.
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