Administration Asked To Prepare Report Reviewing Snow Removal
The annual great snow clearing debate appeared almost by cue like the annual community blizzard and right on time to potentially blast a bit of Winter into next year’s budget deliberations.
At Tuesday evening’s Council meeting Councillor Dawn Luhning proposed a motion to have Administration provide a report on the total costs to totally remove snow from Priority One and Priority Two streets. At the present time the snow is usually plowed up along the edge of the road and then allowed to melt there in the Spring.
“Snow piles on streets is something I think we need to address,” Councillor Luhning said, adding she would like to see the City remove the snow piled around schools and on bus routes.
Council asked about why snow had been windrowed to the center of Main Street (as shown in the photo) and 1st Avenue NW and were told it was only temporary as the extremely cold weather had the potential of breaking machinery and the City was waiting for warmer weather to remove it - MJ Independent photo
At the present time the only educational institution which has had the City remove the snow piles around it is Sask Polythechnic.
“There just isn’t enough room for two way traffic and people parked in front of their homes,” she said.
She went on to state removing the snow may in the end save the City money by helping to eliminate the thaw, freeze, thaw, freeze cycle.
A freeze-thaw cycle is when the temperature fluctuates from above freezing, to below freezing, and then back to above freezing. By doing this water enters cracks in the road and then freezes causing the cracks to become wider and deeper as the water expands during freezing. A freeze-thaw cycle can cause major damage and potholes to roadways.
“I believe it (not removing the snow) is going to cost us a little bit more down the road.”
Councillor Luhning said she felt taxpayers would be in favour of her proposal.
“This is one of those things, garbage included, I believe citizens are going to want their tax dollars spent on.”
SNOW ROUTES
Councillor Luhning spoke about snow routes and how the City may be able to plow more efficiently and quickly if they were obeyed and the system in place now was changed to a system used in Central Canada. She said she envisioned a system where snow routes were declared, vehicles would be removed from the affected roadways and the plow came through quickly and afterwards residents shoveled out their driveways.
She asked if the present lifting the arm of a snow plow so as not to deposit snow in front of a driveway was the best way to do things as it was not how snow was removed in Toronto and Montreal.
“Anybody down East will know the plows don’t lift their arms (at your driveway) and you shovel yourself out.”
She asked if by changing this it would not be a more effective way to clean snow from the streets.
“I understand it’s hard to get out of the driveways…but sometimes we keep doing things over and over again (without getting better results),” she said.
City manager Jim Puffalt said going to a system where the City plow would leave a pile of snow in a resident’s driveway was not well received in communities he had worked at and was a generator of major complaints.
“From other communities (I have been in) when you do blow in driveways you do get complaints,” Puffalt said. “This is something I would not encourage our Council to do it.”
He said in some cases municipal equipment in those communities had to go and clear out driveways that had too much snow and ice for residents to shovel out.
Councillor Luhning said she wondered if the City could find an area in which to try not lifting the plow’s gate and simply putting snow on resident’s driveway.
“I would like to see some areas of the city test it,” she said, later adding “I am wondering if we can do things differently because we don’t get things moving.”
Mayor Fraser Tolmie said the City had been making improvements to the City’s snow clearing efforts by adding additional funding and then seeing what impact it had on getting the work done and if it was done better. He said there might be better ways to clear roads than what is being done in Saskatchewan communities right now.
“Maybe we can look outside our borders (for solutions),” Mayor Tolmie said.
Changing the snow clearing system might entail different equipment requirements, something Councillor Luhning said should be discussed at Budget time.
Councillor Heather Eby warned about the added costs upgrading the snow clearing system would entail.
“We have had this kind of report come to us before but it does come with a large dollar value attached to it,” Councillor Eby said. “I know we don’t remove the snow but we are getting batter at it.”
She said her own personal thoughts were the City should look at plowing not just higher usage and priority streets but neighbourhoods as well.
“Personally i would like to see a full residential plow so everybody benefits from it.”
At present the City only plows major thoroughfares with residential streets only plowed if they become impassible or their ruts or snow depth exceeds a certain depth which triggers a neighbourhood plow. Otherwise snow is simply driven over and packed down by vehicular traffic on most residential streets.
Councillor Doug Blanc said he supported having Administration drawing up a report and the potential enhanced snow clearing looked at.
“I know it is going to be a huge cost because snow removal is never cheap,” Councillor Blanc said.
In a unanimous 7 - 0 vote Council authorized Administration to draft the report for discussion and the potential of adopting changes during the 2022 Budget discussions.