MOOSE JAW — City council is pleased with the suggested changes to the winter maintenance policy, while members are thrilled that city administration expects to have sufficient manpower to pursue the ambitious snow-clearing schedule.
During administration’s presentation on Aug. 11, Coun. Dawn Luhning said she hoped the municipality had enough trained grader operators to implement the new policy, especially since — as a new feature — the city plans to fully remove snow from downtown streets and bus routes.
Bevan Harlton, director of operations, said city hall has hired a new crew lead for the third snow-clearing grader team. This means one team will work overnight four times a week, one team will work during the day four times a week and a third team will be daytime-focused, for nine total certified grader operators.
Continuing, the operations director acknowledged that turnover in those positions is likely, but administration’s goal is to maintain a minimum of nine operators. That will ensure the city can perform the necessary work compared to last year.
“We are very ambitious with what we want to get done in the downtown core,” Harlton remarked.
Meanwhile, his department will enhance the city’s plowing and hauling abilities by hiring contractors, with one group to support grader operators and another group to remove and haul snow.
Luhning then asked whether there would be delays in plowing and clearing snow because of shift changes or from moving employees from day to night.
Administration replied that employees will remain on their respective shifts — day or night — all winter, so there should be few effects. Also, crews will be out when snow is falling to prevent roads and alleys from becoming impassable.
Coun. Chris Warren said he liked how the city would use contractors and was changing how it approached those agreements. However, he noted that he received feedback from contractors about how Moose Jaw does not offer incentives. This has led private companies to prioritize parking lots since it’s guaranteed work.
Administration replied that it is reworking its tender process and could consider adding incentives, since it has also received similar feedback.
Meanwhile, administration said it plans to remove snow from on-street parking spaces. This is positive because feedback from a survey showed Moose Javians disapproved of eliminating that service, while they opposed blocking driveways with windrows.
Crews usually store snow on the street when there’s space, but the general practice is to remove the fluffy stuff to maintain parking spaces, administration continued. However, the updated policy gives the city more discretion to potentially leave snow in front of driveways that are double- or triple-wide.
Administration noted that grader operators’ biggest frustration was working with 19-year-old snow-traps that didn’t capture all the snow. However, the city purchased three new traps this year, which puts plowing operations “in a totally different world.”
Administration added that crews could potentially save time and plow more roads if they left 15-centimetre-high windrows in front of driveways.
Warren said vehicles could easily drive through snow that’s 10 to 15 centimetres high, while he thought they could also manage 30 centimetres. He noted that leaving behind small windrows on the street would reflect the amount of snow that fell.
Meanwhile, Warren inquired about how the city would handle clearing alleys, while he also asked whether administration would update a bylaw to force homeowners to clear their sidewalks just as commercial and industrial owners must do.
Administration said the city would keep alleys clear to support garbage collection efforts and would do that based on employees’ advice. However, public works would plow alleys unconnected to garbage collection if enough residents called about certain ones.
Meanwhile, city hall has not discussed increasing the budget to plow all alleys, considering graders would leave behind windrows that would lean against fences, SaskPower poles and electrical boxes, administration added.
With clearing residential sidewalks, administration said that’s an ongoing discussion, although it is focused on improving service levels. Adding that service could be a question for a future survey.
Coun. Heather Eby said she was glad city crews would remove snow from parking spaces since she operates a home-based business and not having on-street parking would be “very problematic.”
Continuing, she said it’s frustrating for businesses to pay contractors to remove snow and then have city graders fill in those parking spaces again.
“I’m not looking forward to winter, but I see this (policy) working very well,” Eby added.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 25.
