Council opts to stand pat on snow removal system
City will decide at random when crews will be dispatched to neighbourhoods
Some city councillors questioned a plan to treat every neighbourhood equally while removing thousands of tonnes of snow, suggesting narrow streets and high parking volumes can create specific problems.
In the end, however, none proved willing to tinker with city hall's proposal to randomly determine where crews will start their work, a process that is expected to begin as early as Wednesday and take an estimated two months to complete.
“I want zero delays in this … As long as it's getting removed, that's all I care about,” said Coun. Troy Davies, who emphasized that no one on council is a snow removal expert.
City manager Jeff Jorgenson acknowledged the “dilemma” in establishing a schedule, and emphasized that “all things considered, every neighbourhood is about the same” and all “have their issues.”
“There are so many criteria it becomes very difficult to say, `How could we systematically do that?'” he added, noting that any prioritization scheme would require crews to visit each area two or three times.
“This … allows us to do things as efficiently as possible,” Terry Schmidt, the city's general manager of transportation and construction, added at city council's regular business meeting on Monday.
Councillors Hilary Gough, Cynthia Block and Zach Jeffries noted streets vary from neighbourhood to neighbourhood, and issues such as width and parking have made some more passable than others.
“Things are perhaps not as equal as they (have been) identified,” said Jeffries, who ultimately thanked Schmidt for a pledge to ensure crews are available to deal with “extenuating circumstances” during the cleanup.
City hall announced last week that the snow removal schedule will be determined at random “and then balanced by ward to ensure progress is taking place equally across the city.”
Schmidt said five city crews will begin the work later this week, and the city has a tender out for up to eight private crews. The snow removal schedule is set to be released on Tuesday.
The Nov. 8 storm dumped around 35 centimetres of snow, paralyzing the city, and subsequent smaller snowfalls pushed the total to 53 centimetres as of Nov. 20 — near the all-time record for the entire month, set in 1947.
Besides forcing the postponement of the Nov. 9 civic election, the storm punched a massive hole in the city's budget, using up all that remained of the $13.9-million allocated for snow removal and draining a $3.5-million contingency fund.
City administrators are expecting the total 2020 snow removal budget is now in the vicinity of $24 million, with more costs expected next year as removal continues over the coming weeks and into the new year.
While that will put pressure on next year's $14.3-million snow management budget, city administrators initially did not recommend adding to it, in part because annual snowfall is difficult to predict.
The city does not typically clear or remove snow from residential streets, but Jorgenson said the unprecedented move was necessary due to the size of the storm and the fact it came early in the year.
Letting more snow accumulate over the winter, he said, could create a “completely unworkable city.”