What Was the Cost?

Two weeks of hard winter weather have taken a financial toll on some areas of Jefferson County, as municipalities and individual county departments struggle to deal with the costs associated with multiple winter storms. Beyond the impact in the private sector, where many businesses were unable to open their doors or had very little consumer traffic, as well as employees that are finding their paychecks less than usual due to missed work days, foul weather also hits the local budgets hard.

In Dandridge,where salt was running low, Town Administrator Melissa Peagler stated that the Town had to make a salt purchase that tallied around $7,000. And, that was on top of payroll that is feeling the bite of serious overtime. While firm numbers will not be in until much later, Peagler anticipates seeing overtime near the $10,000 mark. “When the winter storms are spread out over several weeks we have some regular work days to off set the overtime expense. But, this most recent two weeks of seriously bad weather has necessitated that our employees sometimes work around the clock to keep the Town safe for our visitors and residents. Our Board of Mayor and Aldermen have been very committed to keeping on top of the road issues so that we can lessen the impact to our businesses and residents.” Peagler said on Thursday.

She is encouraged that there could be some assistance from the government to off set some of the costs but Peagler knows that there are more on the horizon. Already there have been water issues to deal with due to the wintry conditions and, with snow melt and the forecast of rain, those could increase. There will also likely be road issues to deal with as well.

As far as the impact to Jefferson County, Mayor Palmieri said Friday that it is just still too early for numbers to be in regarding overtime. He said that several departments will likely have impacted budgets, such as the Highway Department, E-911 and EMA/EMS, law enforcment, all of which have been putting in long hours over the last couple of weeks. While the Mayor has no knowledge of any serious issues with County buildings from the storm, the road impact will extend beyond the snow melt.

Mayor Palmieri expressed concern regarding the impact to the local sales tax, which is likely to be heavy as most people simply couldn’t get out to make their regular purchases. Palmieri said “I am concerned about our local businesses and their employees. It is rough when there simply isn’t the traffic coming in the door and, of course, some people have missed several days of work due to the weather. It couldn’t be helped but it will be a hard time for some families.” However, in light of the sheer amount of ice and snow that the local area has suffered, the Mayor was pleased by the County, municipality and community response. “ I think that Jefferson County fared as well as we could have in this type of situation. Our County departments and employees have been actively out in the community, helping those in need and keeping the County moving as well as possible, considering the situation. The residents of Jefferson County have pitched in and taken care of one another. When communities work together they can weather just about any storm.”