Councilor Balks at Snow Clearing Recommendation
Prince George, B.C. – A member of Prince George City Council says he is concerned about a call for the city to take on a multi-million dollar expenditure to correct problems with its snow clearing operations.
Following a public outcry and criticism from some councilors over the job done clearing snow from city streets in December and January, Superintendent of Operations (now Operations Director) Bill Gaal compiled a report which, among other things, recommends spending $6.6 million to replace aging equipment and train staff to operate new machinery.
Councilor Brian Skakun questions that recommendation. “We did not get into this situation overnight”, he says, adding “and now we are being asked to spend all this money to replace a big chunk of our equipment in one shot, and that’s a concern to me. There have been times when snow clearing equipment has sat idle because we don’t have enough personnel to run it and now we are going on a massive replacement initiative?”
Skakun says “we have to look at the employee training and ensure we have enough equipment operators if we are going to head in the direction of adding more equipment to what we currently have.” And he wonders why nothing was said or done until people started hollering about the state of the city’s roads. “The real issue for me”, Skakun says, “is that there had to be a crisis with a lot of community outrage to get to where we are, and that is not right.”
Director Gaal will present his report to council Monday night.
Comments
While I would never vote for Brian again based on his questionable character and judgement, he is bang on with this issue. The City management is looking to use the excuse of aging equipment for there lack of performance this winter. The snow hasn’t changed, the streets haven’t changed, the folks running the equipment haven’t changed. What has changed is City’s ability to effectively manage the snow removal program giving the substantial resources they already have at their disposal.
When is someone going to stand up to Gaal and tell him he is not doing the job he was placed in position for? Has he been that incompetent in previous positions? If so, why has he been kicked up the ranks to mess up on an even greater scale?
Snow clearing in this town is getting worse as time goes on. Why? We have more and better equipment now than ever before but it seems the proper direction of that equipment has gotten worse and worse. There is a reason for that and that reason has to be taken out of the picture.
Why was a badly needed snowblower sold off and not replaced? Why has not the equipment continued work at getting the terrible ice pack on the outside of lanes on many very busy streets? This is a safety issue, where a vehicle trying to move over to the right, is bounced right back to the left again.
Many places there are six to eight feet of pavement still covered with six or eight inches of ice or snowbanks four feet high. Why is there nothing being done about it?
It is not possible that ALL the pieces of equipment listed previously (6 Million dollars worth) have reached the point of being beyond repair ALL at the same time.
Even if purchased at the same time an assortment of equipment sees different amounts of wear amongst the various machines based on hours run and severity of task.
Brian (again) is showing that he is a lot closer to reality than the others who seem to be unable to grasp that the demand to replace all this stuff all at once is totally unrealistic.
He will definitely get my vote, even if the trip to the voters location means casting only one vote.
Most of city council is out of touch with reality there has to be a changing of the guard not only within city council but with City staff as well voice your concerns to city hall many people are complaining but how many actually let city hall know I know I do how about you?
Any chance poor snow removal was used as a cover to buy new flashy equipment for the games?
Gaal’s recommendation to purchase 6 million dollars worth of new equipment just shows how far out of touch with reality he is. To use the excuse that new equipment is needed is the reason for inadequate snow removal is beyond all comprehension. This guy needs to be gone.
Strange how council balk at spending 6 million on equipment for snow removal but for the exception of Skakum all were in favour of spending 10 million dollars on a dike. If you remember Stoltz and Green led the charge on that one.
The call for $6 million for new equipment is total and complete bunk. With proper care and preventative maintenance a piece of equipment can be dependable virtually for ever. A good oil sample program can give early warning of potential problems and following equipment manufacturer recommendations for major component rebuild can almost guarantee that it can get through a winter season without a major breakdown.
If an engine or transmission has 19,500 hours on it the spring then they are rolling the dice that it will make it through the next winter if it is not rebuilt.
Why no mention of the IDIOTIC decision to not even leave the yard till there is 6″ on the ground even when Environment Canada has Heavy Snowfall Warning in big red letters on their website. They are screwed right from the get go. Any pennies saved by leaving equipment in the barn is spent many times over in proposed new equipment and added personnel costs.
Start using the equipment the city owns in a more efficient way before even thinking about adding to the fleet.
Who does green owe a favour to from campaign contributions that sells big equipment ?
Why do they go up and down the side streets 3 times?? Is it to scrap it down, and to widen it..Most side streets are built up, and not to wide. A foot and a half from the curb..
Why not just plow one pass, save 2/3rd the time, and money,, for the same roads??
Gaal is a total misfit and an example of a totally ignorant and financially incompetent bureaucracy. He has no interest is helping the people of Prince George. I know, since I had dealings with him this winter. He should be terminated!!!
I see a mix of really old (rust buckets), old not too bad and brand new garbage trucks on the road picking up the garbage!
How come they were not all condemned and replaced with shiny brand new ones ALL at the same time?
Now the shuffle of the deck chairs! For sure that will cost a bundle as well…wonder what will emanate from the ivory towers next.
Mr. Skakun made some good points. For example the one about training operators. The City works department must have seasonal workers, what I think should take place, before seasonal workers are laid off, a training bulletin should be put out to all those interested in being trained as an heavy equipment operator. Once screening and selection has taken place then train them for winter operations. Forward planning would go a long way; is the equipment ready for use? Do we have enough equipment? Should we secure equipment (by reserving rentals or purchase a new piece or two?) – Winter happens in Prince George on a yearly basis, it’s not a big surprise, lets be ready and move out the forces.. :)
Anyone who stood up to Bill Gaal are long gone. The City had good street foremans who knew how to get the snow clearing done and knew how to work with contractors. Bill Gaal got rid of them.
The City equipment is not that old, and I know contractors that have equipment that is 20 years old or olders that are still in good condition. But the City doesn’t want to have anything their equipment list that is five years old and won’t hire anything that is 20 years old.
As for the snow blower, it would damaged if anything heavy is pulled in. So it worked when the City was clearing their streets right away, but seeing as Mr Gaal doesn’t belive in that, the ice chunks would damage the blower
Its not just lack of personnel or breaking down equipment, but a total lack of any kind of planning and organization when it comes to snow removal. Two times this year our street has been plowed twice within 12 hours. My street was plowed the other morning at 2am. Was surprised to see at lunchtime, them coming by again.
Looking at Gaal’s report on council’s agenda it is clear that he has no clue on the cost of equipment or using “worn equipment” as an excuse for piss poor snow clearing. An example is 5 graders for $370k each, a new one can be upwards of a million so either he has specked out a dinky toy or the machines they are trading in are almost new. Same thing for all the other stuff on the wish list.
The rusty garbage trucks is just another visible example of the city’s apparent maintenance policy of “drive it till it drops”
Haven’t had my “bus route” street plowed for weeks. But then again maybe I should get a mat to kneel down on and praise the sand truck that goes by and shows up every week at 2 AM.
Its pretty obvious that there is a serious problem with Management and snow removal.
My guess is that Gaal is trying to move the attention from his failed snow removal policy to buying new equipment.
If you take the posts above as an example, you can see how easy it is to change to focus of an issue.
The Council meeting of Feb. 24th is to discuss Gaal’s latest report on the snow removal failure. NOT TO DISCUSS BUYING NEW EQUIPMENT. So hopefully Councillors will stick to the issue, and not get sidetracked.
Once we establish that the present system has (((failed))) then we can take whatever action is necessary to fix it. That could and probably should include some exit packages.
Keep your eye on the ball. Some at City Hall are counting on you to fall asleep,.
Has anyone ever seen a city plow/sand truck actually plowing? I haven’t.
Poorly used equipment is going to fail, driving down a street dragging a blade on clear asphalt is just stupid. More than once I have see plow trucks scraping asphalt and not the snow covered roads.
But then again Skakun has to do the whole rally cry (show boating, like the photos of equipment out of service for maintenance…. idiot).
Sure there are a lot of better ways to get things done, maybe time to review the method that is used for clearing the roads, ( proper equipment utilization ) would be a good start. How about allowing the operators to use judgement as to plow and not plow as road they are assigned. Gee there’s a plan.
How about training the operators and then keeping them employed so the training cost doesn’t fly out the door when we lay off employees…..??
We don’t need to spend money on equipment that we already have, but are too lazy to maintain and repair properly. Here’s a thought how about contracting out the snow clearing and we can save even more cash…..
If you can’t get it done, get the hell out of the way and let someone else giver a go…
I agree Professional.
The only thing that needs to be looked at is the city’s response in the first 24 hours after a major snowfall. After that the main streets begin to pack down to the cratered mess we had to deal with in December. When it packs down that hard the plow trucks are rendered useless.
Trucks are the only things in the fleet that move fast enough to get all the main routes cleared and drivable before it starts to pack. Less traffic on the residential streets means a little more time before it is packed to concrete. The graders, snowblowers, etc should be counted on to do the clean up when the lanes are widened and banks pushed back.
You do not see YRB sending out a bunch of graders and front end loaders to clear the highways as first response to a big dump, why has the city resorted to this practice?
We have to remember that snow blowers are designed to blow snow, not ice. A windrow created by plows/graders on the day that it snows or immediately afterward will be blowing mainly snow. Wait a week with rain followed by weather and one will be trying to blow ice, not snow.
Is it any wonder if machinery breaks down frequently?
Posted by: Dragonmaster on February 22 2014 12:43 PM
Has anyone ever seen a city plow/sand truck actually plowing? I haven’t.
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Every single time I’ve seen a sand/plow truck actually plowing, its showering sparks all over Ospika.
I am sure that the large snow blower can handle some ice without any damage to it.The cost of hauling the snow away is the problem.The snow blower will fill many truck boxes in a short time.
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