Mild winter means fewer road repairs

Long Island roads are a little less bumpy and municipal coffers a little more full, thanks to this winter's mild weather.

Warm temperatures have meant less road surface freezing and thawing and thus fewer potholes for towns to repair.

Officials in towns across the Island report a decrease in the number of potholes this year. In many cases, the savings have been significant, town and city officials said, and can be directed toward other projects.

The Town of Hempstead has spent $16,500 on asphalt for pothole repair this year, a $9,100 decrease from last winter's $25,600, Town of Hempstead press secretary Susan Trenkle-Pokalsky said.

In North Hempstead, money not being used to fill potholes is going toward purchasing materials or sidewalk projects, North Hempstead spokesman Collin Nash said.

Other municipalities are using the unspent repair money to complete projects they would not normally work on at this time of year.

Less patching "will enable us to focus funds on continued recovery from Hurricane Irene so that all beach infrastructure is ready for Memorial Day," Long Beach spokesman Gordon Tepper said. "Additional effort will be focused on the boardwalk with the savings realized from a milder winter."

For Long Beach, having to fix just 250 potholes this year, compared with nearly 2,000 last year, means the city can repair them within 48 hours of a complaint, he said.

The savings come as Long Beach faces a $10 million budget deficit, much of it from overtime pay. Tepper said the reduced road patching work has meant less overtime.

Oyster Bay repaired 120 potholes this winter, about half of last year's number, town spokeswoman Phyllis Barry said.

The warm weather also has allowed road crews to make permanent repairs rather than the temporary patches which are usually used at this time of year.

"We are just getting more permanent patching done," Smithtown highway superintendent Glenn Jorgensen said.

He doesn't expect to bank any savings because "we are still spending the money, whether it's catch-up work, or temporary or permanent" patching.

"The money will be spent anyway, just not on potholes. We probably will do more spot paving on the worst areas so we don't have to keep going back and fixing the holes time and time again," said George Woodson, highway department superintendent of Riverhead.

Fewer potholes means fewer complaints.

"We haven't gotten many, maybe 10 complaints," Woodson said. "But we send out a truck every week to stay on top of it."

Brookhaven received 263 pothole complaints in 2011. Thus far this year, the number is 148, town spokesman Jack Krieger said.

In Hempstead, from Dec. 1, 2011, through Feb. 21, the highway department received 285 resident calls about areas needing repair compared with 554 for the same period last year, Trenkle-Pokalsky said.

But winter weather may not be over yet, North Hempstead's Nash cautioned. "So we can't get too happy yet, just in case we get slammed" by cold temperatures or spring snowstorms.

To report a pothole:

State-maintained roadways: 800-POTHOLE

In Nassau:
-Town of Hempstead: 516-489-5000 or townofhempstead.org/highway-department

-Town of North Hempstead:
Town residents: Dial 311
Non-residents: 516-869-3611

-Town of Oyster Bay: 516-677-5757

-Glen Cove: 516-676-4278

-Long Beach: Pothole Hotline at 516-705-7282 or email potholes@longbeachny.org

In Suffolk:
-Town of Babylon: 631-957-TOWN

-Town of Brookhaven: 631-451-TOWN

-Town of East Hampton: 631-324-0925

-Town of Huntington: 631-351-3076

-Town of Islip: 631-224-5600

-Town of Riverhead: 631-727-3200

-Town of Shelter Island: 631-749-1090

-Town of Smithtown: 631-360-7500

-Town of Southampton: 631-728-3600

-Town of Southold: 631-765-1800