Area coated in ice
School buses pulled off roads, events cancelled due to freezing rain
Multiple events were cancelled in the Peterborough area Tuesday after freezing rain swept through southern Ontario.
Fleming College cancelled classes after 3 p.m. and Trent University called off its evening classes, closing the Trent Athletics Complex at 7 p.m.
The K aw art ha Pine Ridge District School Board cancelled all evening rentals at schools throughout the board and Peterborough Public Health cancelled its prenatal class, rescheduling it for Feb. 14.
The local YMCA closed at 6 p.m., and the New Canadians Centre, Hospice Peter borough and K aw art ha Food Share also closed early.
ST SC O cancelled all school buses in Peterborough city and county early Tuesday morning.
Peterborough Transit also detoured some bus routes to get around ice conditions and suspended some runs.
To get a head start on keeping road conditions safe, Public Works began pre-salting city roads at about 6 a.m. Tuesday.
“Freezing rain is a big challenge ... everything is ramped up with freezing rain because you have less time to work with it ,” said John Czerniawski, public works operations supervisor.
Public Works increased its staff for the Tuesday and Tuesday night to keep on top of the icy conditions.
Meanwhile, city police and Peterborough County OPP used social media Tuesday morning to let the community know that bad weather was on its way.
Neither police force adds extra officers in poor weather conditions, but OPP Const. Jason Folz said OPP will reach out to neighbour- ing OPP detachments if calls for service become overwhelming.
However, that wasn’t the case early Tuesday night. OPP had received only five calls regarding collision sin the county, none were serious, said Folz.
City police Sgt. Jeff Char tier said calls will often go down within the city on days with extreme weather because people just stay home.
Chartier expected collisions to peak when people were heading home from work between 3 and 6 p.m.
But by 7:30 p.m., city police had only responded to three calls since the freezing rain started.