Questions Asked About Slippery Streets And Sidewalks

By Robert Thomas

Recent weather has led to ice on streets and the issue cane up as an enquiry at this past Monday's Council meeting.

Answers which revealed the old adage the squeaky wheel does get the grease or at least moved up in priority wise when it comes to the City dispatching the sanding trucks.

Councillor Crystal Froese asked what the process was to initiate sanding slippery streets saying she had many residents ask her about it.

City manager Jim Puffalt said it was part of the City’s snow removal policy.

“Whenever the streets are sufficiently icy that we will engage. We can tell you that we have been out very steady since Christmas,” Puffalt said.

The City had been out sanding everyday inclusively over the Holidays December 26th to January 5th.

“We generally get out early in the morning and try to get to the major intersections…basically we have routes that they follow,” Puffalt said.

“Depending on conditions it can be that we just carry on. We do one route and go onto the next and go to the next. It’s all dependent on the conditions,” he said.

Public works manager said Darrin Stephanson said given recent weather the sanding trucks had been out 12 - 14 hours a day.

The sanding trucks usually start at 5 am “to get there before everybody does their work rush.”

Sanding trucks work through priority routes multiple times per day, he said.

“To hit all those routes before moving out to residential areas in between and after. At that point they would be responding to complaints first before doing anything else more broadly. The four priority routes…which is a large amount of kilometers gets done on a repeat basis and sand trucks are out every single day pretty much,” Stephanson said.

The sidewalk area directly in front of City Hall is now out of bounds due to the potential of falling ice and snow - MJ Independent photo

Saying she was not going to ask about it in public but Councillor Crystal Froese had opened the door to it through her questions Councillor Heather Eby asked about the slippery sidewalks adjacent City Hall, the Moose Jaw Police Service police station and the City's parking lot (at the corner of Fairford Street West and 1st Avenue NW).

“Last week after it rained it was really icy and I didn’t know that we take care of ice on sidewalks in that area so I would ask,” Councillor Eby said.

Stephanson said the City does maintain the sidewalks om question for snow and ice.

“We try to get to the sidewalks as soon as we can especially in public places like city hall. It is our responsibility to look after and that can be sometimes delayed depending on what is going on on other streets,” he said.

Snow and ice on the sidewalk on the Fairford Street West side of City Hall on Saturday afternoon - MJ Independent photo

Editor's Note - Icing close the city hall itself claimed the writer as a victim. Heading into Council on Monday - late as usual - it end up as a spill and a hard fall causing a bruised wrist and swelling which has reduced the work flow over the past week. Anti-inflammatories and infused medications for an unrelated medical condition alleviated the symptoms until later in the evening…

We let Darrin Stephanson know about it so hopefully others never took a tumble.