City's overtime budget takes a hit, but new money comes in from state

The City of Tulsa spent more than two-thirds of its overtime budget cleaning up after the first serious winter storm of the year, but more money just came in from the state.

Paul Strizek with Public Works tells KRMG the timing of the storm led to a lot of overtime.

"We spent about $42,000 in overtime in just three days. Of course, everything after 3:00 on Friday is overtime, so we went all day Friday and all day Saturday, and of course we worked part of the time on Thursday also," he said.

With $60,000 in the overtime budget before the storm, that leaves only $18,000 in the coffers.

But in what one might call a windfall, the city just received $100,000 from the state to cover the costs of the clean up from July's massive windstorm.

Strizek says that money's currently being held in reserve, but if needed, could be used to cover overtime costs for any additional storms this fiscal year.

In Oklahoma, trying to figure out how much it will cost to clean up from storms is nearly impossible.

Some years, the city gets little or no damage, snow or ice.

Other years, Strizek said, they've had overtime crews working as much as 30 days.