Ward County has spent $1.62 million on snow removal and sanding this winter, with an estimated $30,000 still owing to contractors.

The total is the highest in at least eight years, according to figures presented to the Ward County Commission Tuesday by County Engineer Dana Larsen.

Larsen explained in past years, certain areas were hit hard by snowfall, and snow removal efforts focused on those areas. This year, the heavy snowfall kept plows and dozers busy everywhere.

“That’s probably the biggest reason,” Larsen said of the high bill. “It wasn’t just a part of the county. It was literally the entire county.”

Ward County spent $408,822 on snow removal from October through December 2016 and more than $1.09 million in January and February, for a total of $1.5 million. The county spent $122,012 on sanding.

Contractor costs account for $483,475 of the total spending. Eight different contractors were hired.

Expenses of $1.15 million so far in 2017 compares to about $1.04 million in 2011, another year that brought lots of snow. The county had spent $445,751 in 2010.

After 2011, the next highest years for spending on snow removal and sanding were $843,466 in 2009 and $729,000 in 2013. The county had few expenses in 2014 and 2015, spending $283,644 and $246,909, respectively. Only this winter’s expenses for 2016 were readily available but costs were low the previous winter.

Larsen noted spending on contractors this winter has been about double the amount spent in the more recent high-snowfall years. Part of the reason is the cost of hiring contractors has increased from about $150 an hour to $200 an hour. Larsen added the county also had twice as many hired dozers pushing snow away from the roads as in the past.

So far, the county commission hasn’t approved use of the emergency fund for snow removal. Unless state help becomes available, the cost of snow removal would come out of the highway department budget, Larsen said after the commission meeting.

The cost associated with overtime and fuel would come from the normal overtime and fuel budget, he said. Funds used to pay contractors and buy salt and sand comes from the same budget line item as hiring contractors to crush and haul gravel or complete other maintenance projects.

“We will have to reduce the number of overtime hours and part-time help used to work on maintenance projects this summer,” Larsen said. “We may not be able to complete as much maintenance work this summer as we would like because the funds were spent on snow removal. However, on a positive note, if there is minimal flooding this spring, that will be a cost savings compared to the amount of dollars we had to spend on repairing roads after the flooding in 2009 and 2011. Also in 2016, we were able to add additional miles of graveling because of the previously easy winter.”

In other action related to the highway department, the commission voted to approve a right-of-way encroachment policy and schedule a public hearing on the ordinance. Larsen described situations of mobile homes, fences, camping and farming activity that have occurred in county-owned right of way and would be prohibited by the ordinance.

The proposed ordinance is patterned after Cass County’s policy, with the exception it would not require neighboring landowners to maintain the rights of way. The county would continue to mow those areas, although agricultural producers would be allowed to hay as long as they removed the bales.