Atlanta weather | Winter weather costs adding up for metro cities, counties

By Janel Davis

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

As the snow and ice begin to melt away, metro Atlanta counties and cities have begun watching something else pile up: the expenses for once more making their streets safely passable.

Early, incomplete estimates put the cost at $1.6 million with the numbers still undetermined in several cities and counties.

The long-term impact of these expenses on area budgets is not yet fully known. Some jurisdictions said their current budgets can handle the expenses, but others such as Clayton and Gwinnett counties, are still slogging through the numbers.

Most of the expense was related to road work and supplies, with the largest portion of the money going to employees for their work and overtime. Overall, the resounding response from government leaders was that the cost was worth it.

Bill Shelton, Cobb County's maintenance division manager, said the county started paying overtime to county DOT workers at 4 p.m. Wednesday. By Friday, estimates for labor and overtime for Cobb reached $87,000. But as Cobb continued to chip away at its icy roads, he said money was his lowest priority.

Suwanee City Manager Marty Allen agreed.

“Getting citizens able to get to work, getting businesses back open and operational, the costs we’re incurring are well worth it,” he said.

The recovery in DeKalb County was among the most expensive in the region. County spokesman Burke Brennan said that by noon Wednesday, DeKalb had already spent about $662,000, including $210,000 for overtime for road crews, $5,625 for fleet maintenance workers who worked overtime putting chains on emergency vehicles and responding to wrecks, and $135,000 for watershed management crews who had to address water and sewer problems during the storm.

Officials within the various counties expect to absorb the storm costs into their 2011 budgets and shift money from other areas to pay for the expenses. Georgia, and its counties, are not expected to receive federal reimbursement for storm expenses, said Ken Davis, a spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Despite the $2 million a day the state DOT is spending clearing roads and the local government’s expenses, Georgia’s threshold for federal emergency assistance is $12.6 million in eligible costs.

“Granted, this was a tremendous storm, but on the bright side we didn’t have widespread power outages and the urgency of lifesaving conditions,” Davis said, comparing this week’s storm to the infamous winter storm of 1993 that socked states from Maine to Florida.

A “quick and dirty” estimate of the storm’s impact would be about one-tenth of 1 percent of the state’s projected 2011 economy of $375 billion, said Jeffrey Humphreys, director of economic forecasting at the University of Georgia.

Using that calculation, the storm had a “marginal impact” on the state’s overall economy of $300 million to $400 million, he said.

“Even when you’re talking about production, most of that is not really lost," Humphreys said. "It will be made up over the next few weeks by people working harder.”

As for retail losses:

“[Snowbound customers] didn’t burn the money they had," he said. "They have just delayed spending it or spent it on things they might not have bought otherwise, such as batteries.”

For local businesses, the storm yielded losses for some, gains for others.

Hotels in Forsyth County saw an increase in business because of stranded commuters and doctors from Northside Hospital-Forsyth booking rooms, said Randall Toussaint, vice president of economic development for the Cumming-Forsyth Chamber of Commerce.

Toussaint said local retailers began reporting a rebound in customer traffic Wednesday as the roads became more passable.

Snellville resident Marlyn Tillman would have just liked to get out of her home.

“Everyone wants to shift the conversation to equipment and funding,” she said. “They could have had 200 trucks, but if they implemented the plan that they had, we'd still be in the situation we’re in.”

Snellville spent about $15,0000 responding to the storm this week, including $9,000 on fuel, labor and equipment.

A native of Philadelphia, Tillman said Snellville, Gwinnett County and the state had no strategic plan going into the storm, which led to an after-the-fact response she finds “unacceptable.”

“For the amount of taxes I pay and overpay every year, I expect better service," she said. "I’m in metro Atlanta, not Bangladesh.”

Perhaps answering constituents with complaints similar to Tillman's, Fulton County Commission Chairman John Eaves has recommended using private contractors in the future to handle Fulton's secondary roads so county workers will be able to focus on main roads.

“This is just a lesson learned,” Eaves said. “We’ve just never had a snowstorm like this.”

Staff reporters Shane Blatt, Johnny Edwards, Patrick Fox, Tammy Joyner, Megan Matteucci, Jaime Sarrio, Jeffry Scott and David Wickert contributed to this story.

Storm expenses*:

Counties

Cobb County: $187,744

DeKalb County: $662,000

Forsyth County: $76,200

Fulton County: $309,975

Clayton and Gwinnett counties could not produce figures by press time Friday.

Some cities:

Marietta: $105,000

Milton: $25,000-$30,000

Snellville: $14,884

Suwanee: $28,000

* figures are estimates of expenses incurred; jurisdictions were still incurring costs at press time and final figures were expected later

Sources: City and county governments