Sign up for the meadowlakeNOW newsletter

M.L. city crews start snow removal earlier than usual

Oct 18, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Meadow Lake city crews are busy clearing the streets after a weekend-long snowfall which saw more than 30 cm fall along with an additional few centimetres of rain.

The weather’s events over the weekend caused an issue for crews as they tried to clear the streets. Early on Saturday, Oct. 15, crews were out clearing the first priority streets but Sunday, Oct. 16 brought another heavy snowfall, causing them to start over.

“We clear so the fire department and ambulance has access to their buildings and then we do main roads, other healthcare facilities, things like the lodge, Centre St., Fifth Ave. and schools. Then the final priority being residential areas,” city manager Diana Burton said. “Our responsibility is to keep certain areas clear for things like emergency vehicles and sometimes that means we have to go back and start over before we get through everything.”

City council budgets roughly $40 to $80,000 per year for snow removal. Burton added, regardless of how much snow there is in a year, staff work full-time. If the city doesn’t spend the full amount on snow clearing, it’s used for maintenance, cleaning and other general duties.

The snow is also causing concern in terms of disposal.

“The difference with this snowfall is we got such a significant amount of snow which was so heavy and wet, and so early in the season, that our ground is still thawed and not frozen. Heavy snow being loaded into heavy trucks on thawed ground could cause some problems for the streets,” Burton said.

Crews are attempting to clear snow completely off the streets by transporting it in smaller than normal loads until the ground freezes. 

 

Colton Swiderski is meadowlakeNOW’s municipal affairs, crime and court, health and education reporter. He can be reached at cswiderski@jpbg.ca or tweet him @coltonswiderski.