The Van Buren County Road Commission does, in fact, have enough money on hand to plow for the remainder of the year, despite what you may have heard elsewhere on Thursday.
A news report broke out of Kalamazoo indicating that the road commission was nearly out of money after the post-Thanksgiving winter storm, but Managing Director Bret Witkowski says that’s not at all the case. He says the budget year is almost over, but there’s still enough money left to handle plowing.
“It’s down to the last two weeks left in the budget and we have 39 % left of our snow plowing budget,” Witkowski said.
Witkowski says the budget will roll over soon.
“We’re in good shape financially. We plan that way. We made an adjustment to the budget after the winter snow to start the year because our fiscal year is January-December, and we have plenty of money to plow.”
Witkowski says the road commission budgets cautiously, makes regular adjustments throughout the year, and currently has more than enough funds to handle any December snow. The state requires budget adjustments to be made during the fiscal year, which the commission follows.
Witkowski says the mistaken report published on Thursday was later corrected by the outlet.
