WATERLOO — The City of Waterloo is anticipating a near half-million-dollar deficit in its winter control budget after being slammed by several powerful storms this season.

The city will cover the estimated $493,000 deficit in its $1.5-million winter control budget using a reserve set up to deal with snow budget shortfalls.

"This winter was really record-setting and really depleted our budget, and I think the biggest cost we had was salt," Coun. Mark Whaley said. "That's the nature of the winter."

Whaley said the city's storm budget is based on a five-year average of spending.

Yearly the city anticipates about seven major winter storms, but that can vary.

"In the years when we have less winter storms the reserve budget is a little richer, and when we have more storms like this year it's depleted. But over the average it should be OK — so that you're not having to raise taxes," he said.

This winter has been a challenge, Whaley said.

City officials said in February they estimate response, cleanup and tree replanting from the December ice storm alone will cost nearly $1 million.

The storm struck the weekend before Christmas, dumping an estimated 25 millimetres of freezing rain on Waterloo Region, which left about 37,000 hydro customers without power regionwide.

About $70,000 was withdrawn from the city's winter control reserve in 2013 to deal with snow-clearing, staff said at the time.

But it isn't just winter posing a challenge for officials

The emergence of strong summer storms led to Waterloo setting up a second reserve fund to deal with strong weather. About $300,000 was allocated in the 2014 budget.

"This is a new phenomenon, climate change," Whaley said. "We're impacted locally with the storms and it's our local infrastructure that takes the biggest hit, so we need to begin to plan in the long-term for the other storms that are not winter-related."

Last April an ice storm swept the region. The city received more than 300 emails and phone calls from residents and about 240 trees damaged.

The July wind storm was worse, with 500 calls and more than 500 city trees damaged.

City staff said in August that the cost to clean up from the two storms — mostly damaged trees — was estimated at $440,000.

pdesmond@therecord.com