But town officials say additional snowfall this season could threaten the town's fiscal reserves.
Although the snow, which started falling Jan. 2, caused several problems for the town's roadways, Town Manager Cal Horton said Chapel Hill reserves funds for events such as these.
"We always expect unusual storm events and have to allocate funds for that in the budget," Horton said. "It's a normal part of our expenditure."
But other town officials say another similar event could pose problems to maintaining a balanced budget because last week's storm has already depleted town resources.
Public Works Director Bruce Heflin said that although the town prepares for natural emergencies, there is a limit to the town's ability to pay for unexpected events in one year. "This was an expensive storm," said Heflin. "It could easily run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Depending on how many more storms we will have the rest of the year, we'll have to see how it will affect our budget. If we have a lot more snow, then we'll have a problem."
Each year, individual departments in Chapel Hill include emergency spending in their planned budget.
As unpredictable events such as a snowstorms occur, the departments use the designated funds to pay additional costs like supplies and employee overtime.
Chapel Hill firefighters, police officers, and Public Works employees all received overtime while working on the cleanup.
"If we have an expensive recovery, that reduces the amount of funding for normal operations," Horton said.
