The massive snowfall over the past couple of weeks has City of Whitehorse officials considering contracting out some of the snow removal that lays ahead.

'We're fully extended right now,' Rob Fendrick, the city's director of administrative services, said in an interview Tuesday afternoon.

All of the 18 full-time and eight casual snow removal workers are busy right now, many working about an hour and a half of overtime each day just to keep up, Fendrick said.

There are also two lead hands who oversee the two shifts and an overall supervisor for the entire operation.

'We're formulating options,' Fendrick said of what the city will do to deal with the snow.

Administration will bring forward the proposals for city council to consider at its Monday evening meeting.

Over the next week, city officials will consider options like contracting out some of the work and how much each choice would cost.

While the snowfall could subside by then, Fendrick noted there are some lower-priority areas like commercial parking lots that will still need to be plowed.

It's also important to have residential areas completely plowed before the spring thaw, he explained.

With a $1.4-million budget for snow clearing in 2005, Fendrick is confident the city will have the funds available for this season's unusually heavy snows.

There is a question, though, of how much will be available for November and December of next winter.

He noted last year, the city had a $136,000 snow removal reserve, but that was spent.

While officials are still calculating whether there is any sort of surplus from 2004, Fendrick said council could choose to use it for a snow removal reserve.

In January 2004, the city spent $200,000 on snow removal. That rose to $263,000 last February and $353,000 last March. Last April, the cost fell to $63,000.

This season, the city started its snow removal last October at a cost of $143,000, in November at $166,000, and in December at $282,000.

Figures for how much was spent in January are still being calculated.

The city's snow removal fleet includes three graders, three large sanders and a front-end loader, as well as several dump trunks used to haul the snow.

The Whitehorse airport recorded 55.9 cm of snow in January, which is 236 per cent of normal for the month.

The total monthly snowfall was the second-heaviest since records began in 1942, Environment Canada reported today.

However, so far for the winter period (October to January), the snow level is only the seventh snowiest, with 118.7 cm in total compared to 1990/91. That winter, to the end of January, 174 cm of snow fell.

More snow is expected to fall over the next week.