City Pays $8,000 Per Mile For Snow/Ice Removal - See How Your Town's Plowing Budget Compares

Publish date: 2024-05-27

In a review of snowplow/snow removal expenditures per community, differences in how much a town is willing to pay for the service quickly emerge.

Among the 10 largest communities in Central and Western Massachusetts, it’s hard to beat Worcester. The city spent $8,530 per mile of city roadway on plowing services in 2019.

The biggest city spending the least amount of money per mile to plow its streets is Chicopee - which spent $2,635 per mile in 2019.

Here’s what the largest communities paid to remove snow in 2019, according to the most recent data from the Massachusetts Division of Local Services.

To see what’s happening in your town, keep scrolling.

TOP 10 LARGEST CITIES

It’s hard to beat Worcester on snow-removal spending, but Pittsfield in Berkshire County is the only one in Central and Western Massachusetts that does. The Berkshires’ get more snow than other parts of the state and has fewer available workers - a situation that jacks up the cost of street plowing. Pittsfield spent $10,442 per mile on snow plowing in 2019.

Here’s what other cities spent:

Among the factors that determine how much a community spends on snow removal is the cost of materials such as sand and salt, snow plow/vehicle maintenance, wages, and past budget appropriations.

It is not uncommon for a community to earmark less than what is needed for snow removal, then pass added spending measures as needed. Doing things this way makes sure that money doesn’t get tied up in snow removal services - when it could be spent on police, schools, etc. - during a light winter. In many cases, removing money from a department in the middle of a budget cycle is much harder than passing a supplemental appropriation.

WORCESTER COUNTY

Here’s what your community spent to remove snow in 2019 going from most to least money per mile spent. The data includes the per mile as well as total expenditure.

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