City administration gave an update on snow clearing operations in the city following this past weekend’s snowfall.
Coun. Patrick Boyle posed the question to city administration about service times.
Director of Operations Bevan Harlton outlined that through the snow clearing bylaw, Priority 1 roads must be completed within 24 hours of a snow event, Priority 2 roads within 48 hours, Priority 3 in 72 hours, and Priority 4 in 96 hours.
Adding to the situation was that Moose Jaw received two snow events in close succession of one another.
“There’s a bit of interpretation on the conclusion of a snow event, but certainly having a second one piled two days after the first one has impacted our services,” Harlton explained.
Harlton said that crews reverted back to Priority 1 roads on Sunday afternoon and finished on Monday night. Snow clearing crews have now moved on to Priority 2 roadways.
He noted that, even after the snow finished falling on Sunday, crews still had to deal with blowing snow.
“If you look at when the snowfall was done on Sunday afternoon, I think you could argue that we are over 24 hours for Priority 1 locations. However, the winds were blowing from the northwest quite significantly and I think that we were seeing drifting Sunday afternoon up until about 5 when the wind subsided,” he said.
Boyle also asked whether GPS tracking has ever been considered for the plows so residents can jump on the city app and see where plows are.
Harlton responded that the plows are equipped with GPS capabilities. He said a few years ago conversations happened about connecting the GPS to make it forward-facing. Harlton hadn’t discussed it with his staff at Public Works at this time, but the hardware is there and something that can be brought forward.
Although there were no official measurements from Environment Canada, there were reports of 12 to 17 cm of snow in the Moose Jaw area over the weekend.