WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) — The snow isn’t the only thing accumulating throughout Connecticut. After a series of recent snowstorms, overtime for snowplow drivers is starting to pile up, too. While it’s good for his paycheck, Waterbury plow driver Mike DiMeco says the recent storms have hit snowplow drivers hard.
“Yeah it’s been tough, it’s hard you know? We’re not home much,” he said. “When we do get home it’s, like, for a couple of hours, try to rest, come back for the next one.”
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“We talk to all of our drivers that are out on the roadways, make sure they take breaks when they need them, get some rest, get something to eat, and then head back out on the roads,” said Mark Lombardo, deputy director of the Waterbury Department of Public Works.
Take a listen to how many hours Mike has recently racked up:
“Oh, man, it’s like 20 for the past two days,” he said. “I really can’t believe all this snow we’ve been getting. We’ve been trying to stay on top of it.”
No word how much this busy winter has buried the city’s snow budget. But they’ve already had to start ordering more sand and salt to keep up.
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They usually start to order more when their huge stockpile of a salt-sand mixture gets to about half of what it was when the winter season started. Their first new order of salt and sand came Tuesday.
“It’s been several years around here where we’ve had storms come this quick at us,” Lombardo said. “So, we’ve been ramping up.”
As for Mike who’s work has ramped up, too — there is a bright side and he sees it in his paycheck.
“Definitely helps pay the bills for me since I’m like everybody else struggling right now,” he said.
