CHAMPAIGN – As a particularly snowy season has put more weight on an already tight budget, the city council will review and potentially increase the earmark for snow removal when it meets this week.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Champaign City Building, 102 N. Neil St.

As of Jan. 31, overtime pay for public works employees who are called in during snowstorms has reached $226,198 – about 228 percent over budget – and the cost of road salt could reach $355,555 before the end of the season – about 80 percent over budget.

"We had storms on every major holiday, so we had employees working on every holiday this year," operations manager Tom Schuh said of the overtime costs.

Even smaller line items have run well over budget. The city would like to increase its budget for employee meals to more than $10,000, twice the amount officials expected at the beginning of the fiscal year last summer. As provided in the AFSCME union contract, employees who work during snowstorms are reimbursed for food.

City officials would like a total of $2,713 for the costs to repair residents' mailboxes – $1,000 was budgeted. As plows push heavy loads of snow off the street, sometimes mailboxes on the edge of the road become a casualty, Schuh said.

"Small tools and equipment," like plow blades, are expected to run $20,000 over the $6,500 budget.

All in all, snow removal costs are expected to run $356,000 over budget before the end of the season, according to city documents.

That amount would come out of a $4.2 million contingency fund that the city saves for unexpected costs or revenue shortfalls during the year. Or, for example, when more snow accumulates than budgeters expected.

"That's the purpose of the contingency," said Assistant City Manager Dorothy David. "So when we have unusual years, we have somewhere to turn for those costs."

Because those funds are not tied to any specific costs or programs, the overruns in the snow removal budget will not have any immediate impact on city services. But the contingency fund has also fallen below where city council members would like to keep it, and budgeters will need to restore the funds in future spending plans unless the council directs them otherwise.

In other business, the council will review a draft of the city's comprehensive plan, a document that sets goals and policies for growth and development during the next 20 years.

The comprehensive plan is updated every so often; the council last approved a revised plan in 2002 and before that in 1992.