All the snow we've gotten this year is piling on the bills for local school districts.
They hire private contractors to do some or all of the work of removing snow from school parking lots, sidewalks and entrances.
West Fargo Schools has spent $85,000 this year on snow removal - not including Wednesday's cleanup, said Superintendent Dana Diesel Wallace.
"Some years you're under; some years you're over," she said. "And this year we're over."
They're over by $20,000, in fact, from their budget of $65,000. But that doesn't worry her.
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"I'm not concerned we're not going to be able to pay our bills for snow removal," she said. "You prefer to not go over, but again, it happens."
Diesel Wallace said it's likely the district will be spending less than budgeted for diesel fuel, so "we have some wiggle room in the budget."
Moorhead budgeted $47,000 for snow removal, and has spent $31,332 this year not including removal of Wednesday's big dump, Superintendent Lynne Kovash said.
"We should be right in line with our budget," she said.
Fargo budgeted $53,000 for contracted snow-removal services on top of paying overtime for their own school employees to do most of their snow removal. Of the $53,000 for private contractors, the district spent nearly $21,000 through the end of January, said Dan Huffman, the assistant superintendent of business services.
"We're still in good shape," he said. "We're ... not going to be overspent. Hopefully this is it now."
