Tulsa Works Overtime And Over Budget To Clear Roads

Clearing all the ice and snow from the roads is a top priority at the city, even though the budget for the work is already spent.<br/><br/>News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the city was out of money

Friday, January 12th 2007, 9:51 am

By: News On 6

Clearing all the ice and snow from the roads is a top priority at the city, even though the budget for the work is already spent.

News on 6 reporter Emory Bryan says the city was out of money for overtime and for sand and salt even before this storm even started.

It started out with rain, which meant the city couldn't do any pre-treatment on bridges that makes ice less likely to stick. As the morning wore on the heavy rain turned to sleet, and on the roads it turned to slush.

"It's not that bad so far, a couple of slick spots on bridges but that's about it," said one driver.

The conditions for drivers changed by the minute as the temperature hovered around freezing. There was snow for a while, but most of it was rain that froze in places before it turned purely to sleet in the afternoon. The combination coated cars and made for tough defrosting, but these lucky drivers were happily leaving for home and they planned to stay there.

"Well I think I'll stay home this weekend, not try to get out in this, it's a mess," said one motorist.

As the conditions got worse during the day, most drivers were taking it slow and doing OK, some said their main concern was watching out for the other guy.

"Just driving slow, just trying to watch all these other guys," a driver said.

At the city the sand and salt was piled high and trucks were out even though the budget for all this was spent on the last storm.

"I've already spent money we didn't have, but we're going to find the money somewhere for it," said Dan Crossland with the City of Tulsa.

The city budgets $235,000 yearly for ice and snow removal. It has already spent $630,000 this year, most on that one blizzard the week after Thanksgiving.