The timing of snow storms in January made clearing the aftermath an expensive job for Butler.

Because most of the snowfall came after or before the five street department employees' normal working hours, they logged 452 hours of overtime and were paid $19,737 in overtime wages.

City officials looked up the overtime wages Friday, a day after Councilman Kenny Bonus reported the overtime hours at a council meeting.

Bonus, the director of streets and public improvements, commended the workers for their efforts.

“The winter storms in January typically hit the city during nonbusiness hours and the team of five employees stepped up and got the city streets plowed and taken care of,” Bonus said. “The team operates on a small crew and accomplished the undertaking of plowing and salting all of the city streets. Their dedication to their job and the city is a true asset to the community.

“Every one of the streets employees was out plowing during overtime hours to make sure our city streets were as safe as possible.”