Snow removal is hot topic amongst residents

Each year the conversation around snow removal ignites residents. To better understand the process, the Press sat down with Director of Infrastructure Kamruz Zaman, Director of Works Martie Jendrick, and Mayor Maryann Chichak and asked them questions that are commonly brought up on social media.

Residents have questioned why the town doesn’t utilize contractors on a greater scale. “One big reason for that is a lack of available contractors,” said Mayor Chichak. “Secondly, our town employees are trained to know where our infrastructure is in terms of curbs, gutters, shut-off valves, power boxes, and fire hydrants. Contractors may not be aware of where those are.” Zaman agreed. “We have had issues in the past where a contractor damaged infrastructure that we then had to go back and fix which was at a cost to taxpayers.” Jendrick added that the need for more staff to monitor contractors would be an increased cost.

Implementing a street parking ban throughout the winter months has been brought up repeatedly. “I look at some of our streets and the number of vehicles that a lot of households have with personal vehicles, work vehicles, and young adults living at home with their own vehicle. I feel it would be next to impossible to implement. I shudder at the public outcry that would happen if we banned street parking for a four to five-month period,” said Mayor Chichak.

Concerns have been raised about how best to get information to residents when it comes to road clearing. Town administration utilizes their website (www.whitecourt.ca) as their main resource with their Facebook page as a close second. Residents who do not have access to social media or the internet are encouraged to call the town for updates. The website is the fastest way to receive updates on snow clearing.

For roads that are signed, if your vehicle is still on the roadway once 7 a.m. hits you can expect a ticket and to be towed as a bylaw notice will be out in advance of the snow removal crews. “We will sign it 24 hours in advance, so we have lots of time and room for our gear to get in and work. Some of the roads in town are just too narrow so without the vehicles gone there isn’t enough room for us. It’s very important that you move when you see the signs,” said Jendrick.

He added that not all streets will be signed prior to clearing. “Not every road is signed because we can’t dictate how far we can make it in a day since things can happen. However, we only tow vehicles from roads that have been signed in advance.” A bylaw ticket will set residents back $170. For towed residents, a quick call to the town office will let you know where your vehicle has been placed.

As a common-sense approach, residents are asked to park off the road once clean up efforts come closer to their area, whether their street is signed, highlighted, or not. If the crew finishes what they set out to do and still have time on the clock they will seek out nearby roads to clean. The more residents become accustomed to being prepared in advance then the faster crews can clear streets.

If you live in a cul-de-sac and wonder why crews have skipped over your street while doing ones around you, here’s why. “Believe it or not, a cul-de-sac probably takes us the most time. There isn’t enough room to put snow on resident’s lawns which means we must pile it up in the centre of the road. The problem is that we’ve had issues with kids tunnelling into them or climbing up on them, falling, and getting hurt. We determined that, in most cases, if we are going to do a cul-de-sac then we are going to haul it away as we’re clearing it,” said Jendrick.

“But, I only have so much staff. When we’re doing the main roads, we are doing the resident laneways behind the grader, and we can’t do hauling at the same time because it’s the same staff operating both the trucks and the buckets.” For this reason, cul-de-sacs are one of the last places to be dealt with in terms of priority routes since they require more staff in one area. As for the priority routes, they start over in the event of back-to-back snowfall events which means crews would have to abandon residential clearing efforts. “Policy dictates that if we get 10 centimetres on our priority routes, we have to clear them, so all other priorities drop and we have to go back to priority one to make sure that the main part of our town is looked after, always,” said Jendrick.

As for how they decide which residential areas are done first, he explained that they rotate between east and west. “This time we started downtown valley east and worked our way west and up on the hilltop we did the same. Next time it snows we are going to start up on the hill on the west side and work our way east and then we will head down into the valley and head the same direction. It flips back and forth between the snowfalls.”

There are a few roads uptown and in the valley that receive consistent cleaning which he explained is because of drainage issues. “People have expectations in the community, and I respect that, but they have to be reasonable. The residents of our community need to work alongside the town and the employees to ensure that we can efficiently, and cost effectively, do snow removal,” said Mayor Chichak, adding that as of Friday, January 11 her street hadn’t been cleared yet, either.

Some have commented that crews should be working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. “Currently, the workers have been running between 10 and 12-hour days and some are getting into 21 days straight. We are utilizing other departments to give us a hand because we can see more snow coming and I need my crews rested and ready.” As far as round-the-clock clearing, “in residential areas, we don’t clear late at night or too early in the morning because we don’t want to disturb residents, and vehicles are usually parked on the road during those times anyway.”

Residents who have a large pile up of snow at the end of their driveways can expect a crew to come along shortly and clear it up. “On the rare occasion there has been the odd one missed but that is very odd. The graders come through and make the wall and right behind we have three to four buckets following.” If less than 30 centimetres are left behind it is up to the resident to shovel but anything more than that they will come back. Residents who cannot clear their own snow are encouraged to contact the town. The Snow Star Program can get them the help they need.

This year residents may notice that snow is not being pushed as far up onto their yards. “We received complaints from residents because the piled snow had left behind sand and gravel. This year we are trying to minimize the effect on residents by not putting the snow as far onto the lawns as we have in the past,” explained Zaman.

All questions can be answered by calling the town and speaking with administration. It being winter in Alberta, residents must remember that patience and understanding go a long way in making life a bit easier for everyone.