See How Much NYC's Brutal Winter Cost The City

NEW YORK, NY — The piles of snow that blanketed New York City this winter have forced the Department of Sanitation to shell out millions of extra dollars. The department expects to spend $107.2 million on snow removal in the 2018 fiscal year, about $23 million more than was budgeted.

The change, noted in a department report to the City Council this week, follows an unusually brutal winter that included a huge "bomb cyclone" snowstorm in January and a record-breaking snowfall in early April.

"This past snow season seemed to never end," Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia told lawmakers during a Thursday hearing.

The city saw more than 40 inches of snow in the most recent snow season, more than 50 percent above the average accumulation level, Garcia said.

The department's proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year, which starts in July, includes $97.7 million for snow removal, up from $84.1 million in the current fiscal year.

The department plans to hire between 400 and 500 new sanitation workers this summer who will be trained in snow operations before next winter, Garcia said.

"Going into the 2018-19 snow season the department will have adequate staffing with over 6,500 sanitation workers available to be prepared for whatever Mother Nature has in store for us," Garcia said.

(Lead image: Sanitation trucks plow snow in Harlem in January 2018. Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)