Tony confesses that his least favorite part of his job is doing the budget. Currently his highway department's budget is $626,073 with a CHIPS allocation of $45,400.
"We try to heed [Tony] Salvador's input and get the highway department any equipment it needs, and according to Tony, currently the equipment fleet is in pretty good shape," said Rocky DiVeronica, Lenox supervisor.
Although Tony finds the funding sufficient for the department's needs, he and his crew still find ways to keep costs down.
"Rocky and the town board have been really good about keeping our tax rates low. That puts some real pressure on my department to keep costs under control.
For instance, we don't pay any overtime. It all goes out in the form of comp time and we pay out the comp time in time-and-a-half. Actually, our employees really like the system," said Tony.
Another cost-saving measure was the building of in-box sanders for some of the department's trucks.
"Several years ago, we designed and built our own in-box sanders. We had a couple of very light winters without much snowfall and we decided that it would be very efficient to build a sander that would slide in the back of the trucks over the tailgate. This would allow us to lose very little sand capacity," explained Tony.
"We built about five of these at a cost of $2,500 each. New ones would have cost as much as $9,000 each," he added. "Last year, we also had the need for additional machinery storage and we built our own barn. The barn measures 30 by 100 feet and is capable of storing eight to 10 vehicles."
Another cost-saving measure is preventative maintenance. The trucks are used year round, but twice a year the trucks are pulled down and reviewed. All repairs from tires to motors are done in-house.
