AUBURN — The city will tap into its emergency reserves to make sure staff can tackle the next few winter storms.

Public Services Director Denis D’Auteuil asked councilors to reallocate $150,000 from the city’s emergency reserve to the Public Services Department to help pay for snow removal. Thanks to January and February’s heavy winter storms, the city’s salt supply is low and the budget for overtime is gone.

The department has enough salt to coat the roads during five more storms.

The $150,000 would pay for an additional two storms worth of salt and fund overtime for six more storms. It would also fund staff and equipment to remove snow from three more storms.

Councilors agreed by a 6-0 vote; Councilor Adam Lee was absent for most of Tuesday night’s meeting.

City Manager Howard Kroll praised the job the road crews have done this winter.

“It’s been really taxing,” he said. “They’ve been out; they’ve worked really hard to keep the roads open and people safe. I really take my hat off to your staff for making that happen.”

But Mayor Jonathan LaBonte was critical of staff for taking the money out of the city’s emergency fund and not looking for savings in other departments.

“Staff said they did not go across the departments to see if there were any austerity measures or other funds available,” LaBonte said. “There are limited resources that could have been allocated to that and it is terribly frustrating to watch that shake out.”

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