With St. Louis County facing the budget squeeze, county officials are plowing through department budgets looking for savings— and that could mean a little less plowing on thousands of miles of county roads.

The public works department, which employs about 15 percent of the county’s workforce, could face some of the most significant cuts, and that could mean the closure of some of the county’s secondary highway garages, including ones in Tower, Cook, Embarrass, Kabetogama, and Buyck. Those sites, and five more in southern St. Louis County are under consideration for possible closure as the department seeks ways to trim its costs.

The fate of the garages, and the employees that work there, won’t be known until the county has a better idea of what kinds of funding cuts might ultimately be approved by the State Legislature. St. Louis County stands to lose nearly $16 million under Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s budget proposal, issued last month. That proposal, if approved by the State Legislature, would force sizable cuts in county spending, according to County Administrator David Twa. Those cuts would include reductions at the county’s public works department, but Twa said he could not give an estimate of the extent of the reductions until the county board gives a clearer sense of its priorities.

The heads of various county departments have been working since mid-January to find savings to offer.

“At this point, we’ve been asked to look at all possibilities for reduction,” said Deputy Public Works Director David Skelton. “That includes reductions in assets, from equipment to buildings.”

It is also likely to include staff layoffs. “The number of employees is probably going to change. At least that’s what we’re being told. We‘re trying to prepare for it,” said Skelton.

The county currently employs about 240 people in road maintenance functions. Of those, about 90 are supervisors or clerical staff, while the remaining 150 are equipment operators or mechanics. Those workers are spread across the county, working at one of six main garage facilities, including one in Ely and another in Linden Grove, or at one of the county’s ten secondary garages. The county maintains thousands of miles of road, most of it gravel-surfaced.

While it appears unlikely that any of the county’s six main garages will face closure, staff layoffs could be seen across the board, and those cuts could reduce the level of maintenance and the speed of snow clearing during major storms, according to Skelton.

The sprawling nature of St. Louis County is complicating the task of budget-cutting for public works. According to Skelton, consolidation of county garages can quickly reach a point of diminishing returns, where the cost of fuel and added drive times can eat up any savings realized through the closure of buildings, a reality that makes staff reductions more likely.

According to Skelton, a recent cost study of the public works department showed the department is relatively cost-effective in terms of buildings, “because we’re close to where the need is.” “But as bad as this budget situation is supposed to be, we’re having to think outside the box.”

There’s likely to be a lot of that going on in St. Louis County in the next several weeks. County administrators will meet with the county board March 25 to begin to lay the ground work for potentially major reductions. Public works officials will have their own budget workshop with the board on April 15.