The severe winter storm that blasted Northeast Ohio for five days after Thanksgiving turned out to be an expensive event for Madison Township. In fact, the township chalked up about $60,000 in costs related to the storm, according to a summary provided by Administrator Tim Brown. Related Articles Local News | Mentor Public Library hosting program by motivational speaker Local News | Mentor Public Library receives funding to host digital literacy workshops Local News | Mentor Public Library hosting pair of cooking programs Local News | Perry Village mayor, two council members help plow streets during storm Local News | Painesville man sentenced on federal drug trafficking charges That information was presented by Brown at the recent township trustee board meeting. The gathering marked the first regular meeting of Madison Township trustees since the conclusion of the prolonged storm, which dumped a large quantity of lake effect snow throughout the region. Brown said that when he drove to work on the morning of Monday, Dec. 2, the fourth full day of the storm, he realized it wasn’t safe to be traveling on Madison Township roads. The major problem was that snow already had been plowed into high mounds at street intersections, and many of those piles extended out far enough to prevent motorists from seeing around corners. The township decided to address that problem by securing the services of three contractors that used excavating equipment to push back protruding snow mounds from intersections. Contractors hired by the township were CIR Excavating, Star Excavating and North Coast Excavating and Contracting. Brown said it was township Service Department Supervisor Paul Cook’s idea “to get a hold of those three local contractors and see if they’d be interested in pushing back (snow).” “And we paid them $150 (each) per hour,” Brown said. Overall, the township ended up owing the three contractors a combined total of under $5,500 for their services, he added. The severe winter storm also prompted the township to purchase a box blade for $5,150. It is a heavy-duty tractor attachment that the township will use to help clean snow from some of its cul-de-sacs, Brown said. In addition, the township paid Reynolds Landscape and Tree Service $900 to remove a tree that unexpectedly came down on Chimney Ridge Drive. Overtime costs for the township Service Department, which maintains the community’s roads, totaled about $20,000. Each member of the department averaged about 48 hours of overtime through the five days of the storm, Brown said. During that same period, the township Service Department used approximately 500 tons of road salt at a cost of $25,000. Fuel costs added up to about $2,500. The township won’t have a problem covering the extra $60,000 for snowstorm costs, thanks to some careful financial planning. “Luckily, we socked money away in an emergency fund and it’s not going to hurt us at all, actually,” Brown said. Madison Township also received extra snow-removal assistance during the storm from the Ohio Department of Transportation. Brown said ODOT sent a couple of its big snowplows, as well two loaders and two dump trucks. “ODOT had probably about six crew members out here for two and half days,” Brown said. “They did us a big service.” Trustee Board Chairman Max Anderson Jr. said the township was able to get through this major snowstorm successfully thanks to the combined efforts of people and entities including Brown; Cook; the township Service Department; the Township Police Department’s officers and dispatchers; Madison Fire District; employees in the township administrative offices; private contractors that assisted the township; and the Ohio Department of Transportation. “We all came together as a team and everybody worked very hard,” he said.