Rob: Now let's talk about back alley maintenance. This is something that has come up in my neighborhood a number of times over the years and some of the older neighborhoods in Moose Jaw, well, just about all the neighborhoods in Moose Jaw, some of the newer neighborhoods have garages with front entrances and nice driveways. But a lot of the more mature neighborhoods there are garages in back alleys on my block, for example, I think there's 8 or 10 garages that people need to access in the back alley. And it's a muddy mess in the spring. It's a muddy mess in the winter sometimes, and if it rains, there's sometimes huge puddles to get through. And people have nice cars and trucks put away in their garages, and now they've got to go straight to the car wash and people are getting frustrated in my neighborhood with what they perceive as the lack of back alley maintenance. We know that we do get sand and graters coming through every summer and they go through the back alley, but my neighbors wonder why we don't put in a higher grade of gravel. Can you tell me what we know about back alley maintenance? And is there is there an appetite at City Hall to improve back alley maintenance?
Maryse: Absolutely. And I have to say I really do feel for our residents, especially this year with all the rain that we've had over the last two to four weeks. It has delayed our back alley maintenance mainly because when it's very wet, of course you cannot go and grade the back alley it needs to be drier. So we are working on that now. We're back on the regular schedule. The other thing is absolutely yeah, we're looking, that's another thing I'm learning. We're looking at a different type of gravel. Our new Director of Operations, Director Harlton has been working with public works to use a different material for the back alleys And so we'll see whether we are able to use that this summer or next summer. But we are looking at it. The other thing I would like to add is that I encourage residents to use the some areas as an example on Coteau Street, where we're doing some work. Of course, we're diverting traffic. We never divert traffic to back alleys. It's always on roads, so please ensure that you follow the proper signage from the city and don't use back alleys. Leave them for the residence.
Rob: Very good. Yeah. I'd like to see a higher grade of gravel in the back alleys. That's for sure. But First things first, we gotta get the potholes filled, right?
Maryse: Absolutely. And we're working on that. We have our two trucks. The asphalt plant is open. So we're actively repairing the potholes.