Harford County is looking to move an additional $750,000 into its operating budget to cover extra snow removal costs this past winter.
The County Council introduced a bill Tuesday to move the funds from a reserve fund balance into the highways fund. The emergency appropriation would include $400,000 in overtime expenses and $350,000 in fuel charges.
A public hearing on the bill is set to be held May 19 at 7 p.m.
The expenses were incurred during an unusually icy winter, county spokesperson Cindy Mumby said.
The county's original snow budget for fiscal year 2015 was about $1.47 million, Mumby said.
"While we didn't have as many snowfalls as in the past, we had a lot of ice and frozen rain," Mumby noted. "That's where the salt comes in."
Harford County, along with the municipalities of Aberdeen, Bel Air and Havre de Grace, had braced itself to be over budget as early as February.
The county's public works department reported at the end of February that it had already spent $334,937 for all snow costs and used about 16,218 tons of salt.
She said the county was being proactive by spreading more salt and pre-treating roads.
The county has also been bracing itself for pothole repairs, after roads throughout the region started cracking as pent-up ice from the extreme cold began thawing.
The winter was notable for several stretches of unusually frigid weather, with wind chills as low as 20 below zero.
An unexpected ice storm early Sunday morning in January also paralyzed the county and killed a New York man.
As many as 10 inches of snow also fell on the county in February during a Saturday storm that came faster than many expected, tying up roads again.