When Bob House sees snow, he sees green.
“When it’s snowing consistently I can make six digits, and that’s not an exaggeration, but there’s a lot of work involved,” said House, 43, owner of House’s Loading and Shuttle Inc., a plowing company based in Tallmadge.
This is not a good season for House.
He said the typical winter has 23 to 27 storms that dump at least 3 inches of snow and require plowing. So far this season, he has had six.
“We’re hurting; it’s definitely hurting,” he said. “We spent a ton of money on new blades, and I’ve got $8,000 in salt that I purchased.
The National Weather Service station at Akron-Canton Airport has recorded 20 inches of snow this season (as of Thursday). That compares with 44.2 inches last winter and 28.8 inches in a normal season through the same date. There is a chance for some snow today and over the weekend.
Unlike many commercial snow plowers, House does not have customers pay up front for unlimited plowing. His contracts have customers pay only for the plowing they need.
House’s loss can be government’s gain when it comes to snow removal.
The Ohio Department of Transportation pays a lot of overtime to keep roads and freeways clear. Through Feb. 3, ODOT’s District 4, which includes Summit and Portage counties, paid out $555,000 to workers for overtime. That figure for the same period of 2011 was $956,000.
ODOT spokesman Brent Kovacs said workers who would otherwise be plowing snow are spending their time repairing highways, fixing trucks and performing other maintenance.
Most years, a sure sign spring is coming is the jolt you get driving over potholes.
Akron Service Director Richard Merolla said there are fewer this season because of the warm weather.
“They do seem to be less visible and less frequent than other winters,” he said. “We don’t have any numbers yet; we don’t have numbers until the winter is over.”
It’s too early to be hopeful for budget savings, he said.
“Our budget goes from January to December, so we could have it mild now and then get killed in November and December and kill the budget,” he said.
He said plow drivers are drawn from the road maintenance, park service and other departments, so those workers are doing their regular jobs instead of plowing. They also are spending more time fixing roads.
Merolla suggested residents call his office to alert him to potholes. His number is 311.
Also suffering are the skiers and workers at Boston Mills and Brandywine ski resorts.
“The last two weeks it has just been too warm for us to make snow,” said Steve Mackle, marketing coordinator. “We need temperatures 28 degrees and under to make any decent snow, so lately it’s been rough.
“Since I’ve been here — I’ve here four years now — this is probably the toughest one that I’ve seen,” Mackle said. “And I’ve talked to a number of people, and they’ve said the same thing.”
He said crews have had several nights when they couldn’t even make snow artificially and were forced to move around old snow to keep the slopes from becoming muddy. He said he was looking forward to predictions of colder weather this weekend to allow snow makers to resume production.
Dave Scott can be reached at 330-996-3577 or davescott@thebeaconjournal.com.
