COLORADO SPRINGS, COLO. -- It's been a tough winter for local snow removal companies. Warm winter weather and dry driving conditions have made snow removal nonexistent. The National Weather Service said Colorado Springs had a little more than three inches of snow so far in March. Compare that to last year when the city had more than seven inches.
Snow removal is almost 20 percent of Natures Best Custom Landscaping's budget. The lack of snow means their equipment is collecting dust, so they're pushing their landscaping services and offering new incentives.
"Go ahead with their landscaping in the winter. There's been no frozen ground conditions which has allowed us to do basically that we need to outdoors," Nathan Sellier with Natures Best Custom Landscaping said.
Snow business isn't any better for MSE-Hickman. This is the fourth year in a row snow sales have been down, and this year is the worst. They've only sold four pieces of snow equipment, including three snowplows and a snow blower.
"The biggest thing we can do is hope that we have a good season through our main growing season which is spring, summer, and early fall and hope that those sales carry us over," Karen Moore with MSE-Hickman said.
If there's one thing our warm winter has taught us, it's that you can't rely on the snow to cover your costs.
The slow snow season isn't saving the city of Colorado Springs much money. Snowplows that would normally clear the roads are multi-use trucks and can be used to patch holes or do dig outs. The city is also not saving any money on overtime. City crews are on salary, so the only savings the city could see from the mild winter is in gas money.