Oregon Public Broadcasting

This week’s wintry blast is causing headaches for school districts and local governments across the Northwest.

Budgets are already tight because of the down economy.  And the storm will increase the fiscal pressure even more. Salem correspondent Chris Lehman has more.

Snow plows, sanding and employee overtime become a big expense in a storm like this one.

A few days of snow and ice are to be expected each winter.  But it’s only mid-December.

If January and February are this bad, cash-strapped cities and counties will have some hard choices to make.

For schools, snow days are more of a hassle than an extra expense.  They don’t save any money since the teachers still get paid.  

The Salem-Keizer School District cancelled school three days in a row for the first time in years.  Spokesman Jay Remy says one silver lining is that few people have been second guessing the decision to keep the doors closed this week.

Jay Remy:  “It’s kind of a thankless decision that you have to make about whether to close school, and the weather’s been so bad and the roads are so icy and slick here right now that we really haven’t been getting much pushback at all.”

Most students will make up the snow days at the end of the school year.  What won’t be re-scheduled in most cases are the many holiday music concerts that have fallen victim to nature’s icy grip.