BY JANELLE LABELLE
Smiths Falls received 30cm of snow this past weekend. During Monday evening’s Committee of the Whole, Director of Public Works Paul McMunn shared a report on the storm cleanup efforts. As of Monday evening, “We’re still digging out sidewalks as we speak,” he said.
As well, operations staff worked all weekend responding to the storm. “We expect to have all of the sidewalks cleared by Tuesday evening, Wednesday at the very latest. It may seem like a tremendous amount of time, but it takes a lot more time to blow snow than to push snow, especially with the amount we had over the course of the weekend.”
Public works is tackling snow removal with a different method this year than in previous years; piling snow on curbs in between the sidewalk and road immediately/during snowfall, and then removing it as needed with blowers. “What we’re doing now operationally is the same as other municipalities,” explained McMunn, “The way we had done things in the past was atypical. We were taking all the snow from the road and sidewalks and depositing it in the front lawns and in some cases very close to the properties that don’t have a lot of space in front.
I was worried about property damage and liability issues.”
This change, McMunn said, is at the root of most of the public’s complaints in the ongoing cleanup efforts from the storm. He recommended not being swayed by public feedback until the springtime results of the winter work are evident.
“My expectation is that we stay the course, go through this winter, then do a bit of a post-mortem at the end to see how things worked out. I wouldn’t necessarily use resident feedback as a measurement for success or failure, because this is new.
“Most municipalities store snow along the curb line, and open up catch basins for drainage, as opposed to storing snow in front yards.”
Councilor McGuire pointed out that the results from the current effort are less than desired. “There’s no sidewalk available on Elmsley street … people are walking in the car right-of-way.
I think maybe we need to look at what the metrics are, what illustrates success, because right now I’m not seeing the potential. We had a good system and I’m not seeing it being improved upon.”
Councilor Dawn Quinn spoke up in favour of seeing how the new snow-removal system works. “If we don’t look at new techniques, we’ll never know if they’re going to work. Our staff are qualified enough to figure this out. Your point about snow all being piled on people’s lawns – basements flood if they get too much [runoff]. What you’re doing is looking at a new technique, which is great. If we don’t try, we’ll never know. I thank you for that.”
Mayor Pankow commented, “It looks like a short-term pain for more long-term gain. We’re not storing the snow on lawns, we’re taking it away, but it will take longer.”
“Please thank your operators, I know they’ve been working around the clock,” Councilor Jennifer Miller said, acknowledging that this was a miserable week for introducing the new system.
She also added her support for returning to the town’s former snow removal method, “In this instance, I would like us to not be like our neighbours; I’ve worked in those communities and that is not the standard we’ve always had.”
Flurries and light snow are predicted for the rest of the week.
The new procedure for cleaning snow is MORONIC. The town will be spending more money repeating the process. It makes it dangerous when existing your vehicle on streets that are now narrower.
The sidewalks for the most part are cleaned but the public now is spending more time walking on the street to an opening to exit the street!!! How is this safer??