Horsham, Hatboro Ready for Next Snowstorm

It appears the rash of Spring-like 50-degree days may be coming to an end, and with the colder temps, the likelihood of snow creeps back into the forecast, for as early as Friday night.

Despite pouring tons of salt, plows–and manpower–into road-clearing already this snowy season, officials in Hatboro and Horsham say they are more than ready for the next big storm.

In Hatboro, Borough Manager Fred Zollers, who doubles as Hatboro's Public Works superintendent, said the borough has about 200 tons of salt on hand. 

"That’s about as much as we can hold," he said. "We use about 18 tons every time."

Financially, Zollers said the borough is still within its snow budget.

"We’re OK for now. Obvsioulsy too many more of those larger storms are going to put a strain on us," Zollers said. "We used a lot of salt because of the ice and the snow this year."

Horsham Township Manager Bill Walker said the township budgeted about $300,000 for snow and ice operations in 2014. That amount covers wages for township staff and contractors, as well as salt and the use of plows.

"We have a pretty healthy budget for snow and ice removal," Walker said, noting that more severe storms could diminish the budget. "It doesn’t take long to go through that."

Should snow and ice removal cost more than Horsham has earmarked, Walker said the township would scale back its projects in 2014.

The last few winters were pretty mild in comparison, he said, adding that Horsham was able to carry out more road paving.

"If we have a very mild winter and we didn’t use all our monies for snow and ice removal, we’ll pave more roads," he said.

According to Accuweather, a "bit" of snow and rain is expected tonight and morning snow is in Saturday's forecast, potentially causing slick road conditions. The high is expected to be 39 on Saturday.