Heavy snowfall may break the budget

Times Reporter 

 

During the Nov. 27 regular Town Council meeting Councillor Rocky Blokland brought up concerns from the downtown businesses regarding the Nov. 16 and 17 storm. The matter was brought forward to the Dec. 4 meeting so that Director of Operations and Engineering Jesse Parker could speak to the matter. 

Blokland said they understand the town does an excellent job with snow removal in the rest of the town and are not trying to jump the queue on the priority list either, but there is a continual problem that needs to be addressed. 

“The windrow that we had Saturday, Sunday and all day Monday (Nov. 16 – 18) was at least four feet high and it ran about seven feet out into the street. There was still angle parking, the driving lanes were not even two full lanes open; they were down to about one. It’s not working,” said Blokland. 

Putting the windrow in the middle of the street is apparently unacceptable, said Blokland, but after that snowstorm the businesses on the north side of 2nd Ave were crippled. He didn’t check 3rd Ave and 4th Ave. 

Punching holes in the windrow worked … until people parked in front of it, which defeated the purpose. 

“These windrows are dangerous for people. A lot of seniors are trying to hop over these banks, trying to get out of their vehicles, you pretty well have to go out there and help them,” said Blokland. 

He said the snowstorm happened on a Saturday and the businesses didn’t expect it to be cleaned up on a Sunday but did think it would be done on Monday morning. Instead, it was done Monday night at 7 p.m. Night time snow removal has been something the town has done for the past few years said Parker.  

Parker said administration has discussed options for snow clearing in the downtown area. He agreed there are opportunities to do things different in the downtown. 

“What we have done this year to try and help with that is if we get snowfalls over the course of an evening, we have identified two staff members minimum to come in at 5:30 a.m. and we’re currently dedicating one of those staff to doing windrowing and snowplowing downtown and the second staff member is addressing the primary one and two routes,” said Parker. 

Parker said based on the staffing numbers they need all their staff to make one removal crew. 

There would be one person on the grader, one on the snow blower and there are three trucks. If anyone is on holidays they are stretched and hiring contractors. 

“We’re starting to think to meet the expectations of the downtown businesses, you know really cooperate and help the downtown businesses to succeed, it’s almost a bigger effort than what we can do ourselves while we also focus our intention on the other roadways in town,” said Parker. 

It can take four hours minimum to remove the snow downtown with the snowplowing, windrowing and the actual removal. The crews start at 5:30 a.m., but to be done before the businesses open is a challenge. 

Councillor John Rempel had a suggestion of pushing all the snow to the south side of the street, and putting up no parking signs, so that all the angle stalls on the north side stay open. Then they could clean the street that night because the snow would all be on one side of the street and the cars would all be parked on the other side of the street.

Between the contracted services, sand and salt, there was a budget of $72,000. Before the storm on Dec. 2 approximately $20,000 of that had been spent. 

“As a result of this snowfall, we’ve contracted trucks, loaders, graders, et cetera and as a result, we are expecting we will likely exhaust most of our $72,000, and potentially request additional funds for expenditure, depending on the efficiency in which we can remove snow,” said Parker. 

“Our goal is to work within our budgeted amount, however, with approximately $52,000 remaining for this most recent snow event, plus re-stocking of sand/salt supplies, we will be close to the budgeted amount.”

For the Dec. 2 storm Parker said the town was spending approximately $1,000/hour in contracted services to get the roads passable and safe for residents. The tally for the storm brought the town up to its budgeted amount for contracted services, if not a little over. Parker will be speaking to council at the Dec. 18 meeting to request additional funds to finish off the year.