NORTH BATTLEFORD —
Add North Battleford to the number of Saskatchewan communities struggling to figure out how to deal with the increased amounts of snow they have to clear.
Other communities including Regina and Saskatoon saw snow clearing exceed their budget allocations last year, due to higher-than-expected snow dumpings there. Saskatoon spent $20 million in December alone after a major dump over the holiday period of a reported 34 centimetres of snow.
With that backdrop, North Battleford’s Planning Committee spent a good part of their meeting Jan. 16 talking about snow removal policy.
They heard from administration that their ability to clear the snow was also under stress during the holiday season. Director of Operations Stewart Schafer noted North Battleford also got hit by the snow event during the holidays.
He said there were a number of questions asked by people on what the city can or can’t do.
“We’re opening it up to you, council, and saying, ‘tell us what you want,’ and we’ll get back to you as to if we can do it, if we can’t, what services we need to bring in and what the costs would be,” said Schafer.
Schafer added that some people “think we can do more than what we have.” He noted after the first snow event their crews were out Dec. 25 and 26 when people were on holidays, and worked through the work week Dec. 27, 28 and 29.
The crews did get New Year’s Day off, but a contractor was used Dec. 30 to clear the alleyways “because we didn’t have the manpower anymore. We were right maxed out.”
City Manager Randy Patrick explained the alleys weren’t something they normally do, but “it was just everything was so plugged.” That was a $30,000 punch, he said.
He wanted to find out if there was a reason to take another look at the policy. Patrick said he was interested in what people were asking for, what people were willing to pay for and whether the priority routes should be changed.
In response to a question from Councillor Greg Lightfoot, Schafer confirmed they are probably going to be using a “good portion if not all of our snow removal budget.”
Lightfoot made it known he didn’t want to add any more dollars to the snow removal budget through tax increases.
“I certainly don’t want to be like Saskatoon and consider borrowing money and repay it in a tax levy,” said Lightfoot.
There was an extensive discussion about the snow clearing, with general appreciation for the work done by the city crews as well as questions about current policy and the situation after heavy snow events.
Councillor Bill Ironstand raised concerns about the Civic Centre being cleared before some other streets, and also raised concerns that the priority of the alley lanes should be higher, noting that for many people the “alleys are their ways into their homes.”
City Manager Patrick noted the alleys had “no” priority under their policy. If “everything else is done and the operators are starting to get bored we can go and do alleys.”
One idea Patrick suggested is to put up signs that declare “snow routes” on priority routes when the snowfall exceeds 15 centimetres. That could be done at minimal cost.
There was also discussions about sidewalk crosswalks and the snowbanks that are left behind after the roads are cleared.
Councillor Kelli Hawtin raised that issue, saying “we need to find a way that pedestrians don’t have to climb over a four-foot-high snowbank to access that sidewalk.” In response Schafer said it would be about $30,000 to clear the corners where sidewalks are.
The plan from administration is to bring back to council some comments regarding the existing policy as well as how to deal with “extraordinary” snow events and major snow dumps. That could come back at a future Planning Committee meeting.
“We want to make sure the policy is reviewed,” said Patrick.
