Town approves budget increase for snow removal, path maintenance tools
By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Town of Strathmore is looking to improve its local road, sidewalk and pathway clearing services, as council approved the purchase of a new tractor for operational use.
Town Operations Manager Donna McCallum presented to Town Council, Jan. 18, to request the authorization of an increase to the budgeted amount, as this was not the original idea for serving the purposes.
“When quotes came in for the municipal tractor, they were over the allotted budget amount. Also upon further review of the cold planer purchase, we discovered that the cold planer does not really operate as we had wanted it to,” she said. “Basically, what it does is it grinds in a vertical motion as opposed to a horizontal motion which results in more of the original sidewalk material being removed.”
McCallum explained the goal with the alternative snow blower attachment for the tractor would help to preserve the sidewalks and pathways much longer than if the cold planer continued its regular operations.
According to the report provided to council, operations staff have found it is more effective to grind the sidewalks and only removing as little of the original material as necessary.
For reference, a cold planer is a device used for the controlled removal of pavement surface to a specific depth. The end result of cold planing is a restored surface free of cracks and tripping hazards, but is an aggressive process to use on sidewalks and pathways.
Additionally, the new tractor would be compatible with other equipment already maintained by the town, making it a versatile, multi-season tool.
“The snowblower and chute will allow operations to use the municipal tractor in the winter to assist with snow removal in case of a breakdown of our loader-mounted snowblower. It can also be used in smaller areas such as the alleys in case of a significant snow event,” said McCallum. “This scope change would result in a small increase to the total budgeted amount. The new tractor will also be compatible with the attachments that we purchased previously, so it allows operations staff to utilize the attachments to conduct the additional tasks such as stump grinding.”
Other uses for the tractor would include allowance for the distribution of ice melt, plowing pathways and sidewalks, mowing and sweeping.
The town had originally budgeted $187,230 for the cold planer and the tractor, though with the requested scope change to account for the tractor, a snowblower attachment, and show chute, the new total would be $189,228.
The change was approved unanimously by Town Council, following a motion put forward to authorize the change by Coun. Denise Peterson.