As temperatures outside reached the 90s last week, county officials invoked the memory of icy barrages five months ago and asked the County Council to approve emergency legislation to cover a $1.2 million shortfall in last winter's snow removal fund.

The council agreed to transfer $349,000 from road construction in the capital budget to the snow removal fund, transfer another $311,000 from unappropriated funds and move $540,000 within the highway budget to cover the shortfall.

The county's fiscal 1994 budget included $330,000 for removing snow from county highways.

"That's the average, customary figure," County Administrative Director Larry Klimovitz told the council Tuesday night.

"But the winter of '94 was anything but customary. We spent almost five times that amount," he said.

The final cost of snow removal was more than $1.5 million, Mr. Klimovitz said.