Last winter as snow storms repeatedly pummeled the Seacoast region, South Berwick's public works director watched as the town’s supply of road salt rapidly dwindled and the wear and tear on his road crews and their equipment increased.  By the end of the season, the Public Works Department had overspent its budget by over $40,000, the first time that has happened in at least eight years, according to Jay Redimarker, the department's director.  To Redimarker, the reason behind the extra spending was clear. Climate change has made maintaining town roads more challenging and more costly. “It’s easy to plow snow,” Redimarker said, but in recent years, due to climate change, winter storms have often brought ice that is much harder to control. “It puts a slippery glaze on the roads,” he noted.  Instead of sending trucks out once or twice during a storm to salt the roads, roads now have to be repeatedly salted to prevent a dangerous ice layer from building up.    The increased cost of maintaining town roads in the winter is one of several climate-related challenges town officials have highlighted in recent years.   In the summer of 2025 the Fire Department responded to several brush fires caused by drought conditions.  Stress on the town’s underground aquifers has raised concerns at the South Berwick Water District about the town’s water supply.   “The hazards that are facing communities like South Berwick are extreme storms and flooding,” said Karina Graeter, the Sustainability Division director at the Southern Maine Planning and …