Night snow plowing on ice

SANDPOINT - State and federal highways in most of the Panhandle won't be plowed overnight this winter because of drastic cuts to the Idaho Transportation Department budget.

The only overnight plowing planned for this winter will be concentrated around Interstate 90 and the Coeur d'Alene and Hayden areas, said ITD District 1 spokeswoman Barbara Babic.

Babic said the suspension of overnight plowing will apply to all five northern counties.

"That could change if more money becomes available, but as it stands right now that's the plan," Babic said on Friday.

The abrupt shift from round-the-clock winter maintenance on state and federal routes results from gradually declining budget allocations for ITD's overtime and the hiring of hourly summer, winter and construction workers.

"We don't have enough employees to cover 24/7 shifts, so we have always used 'hourlies' to help fill out the schedule," Babic said.

But funding for seasonal workers and overtime has steadily declined since 2006, when more than $1 million was set aside for those expenses, known in the department as group costs.

Last year, the department had $229,000 budgeted for group costs. Babic said only $166,000 was allocated for the fiscal year which started in July.