They didn’t recommend changing the head of streets management for someone who could do the job???
This looks like a plan that he should have come up with on his own, what with the huge salary he is being paid.

You’re kidding me! How much did we spend on this? Almost anyone who’s lived in this city for any length of time could have come up with these recommendations. What a waste of money!

“Calibrate and operate weather station on Vallencher Road, also install one such station in College Heights and another in the Bowl area ( cost of $50-$75 thousand)
Hire a special weather forecasting service ($10 thousand”

Whaaaaat? Isn’t environment canada free? They do a pretty good job!

How about getting out there sooner so they don’t get overwhelmed. Waiting for X amount of snow to fall didn’t work.

Agree with NoWay:
Reduce the amount of snowfall accumulated before plowing begins.
yes it will cost more,but how good did that work last year .

It’s astounding to me that the very elementary level of these recommendations needed to be contracted out separately when PG has the highest number per capita of $100K+/year civic employees in the province. Shows the true level of incompetence at City Hall when all those shiny suits and overpaid blue collars can’t come up with a list of 15-20 common sense points that a group of PGSS or KRSS students could have provided just by brainstorming in a circle over lunch!!

No kidding. It’s much easier to clear 6″ of snow twice than it is to clear 10″ once

Glad I am moving out of city limits and don’t have to deal with their incompetences.

Only Prince George would commission a study on snow removal. Could of saved the cost of the study by just asking the equipment operators for their recommendations.

Last winter I asked the question of the city why the section of Davis rd in Charella and Charella drive were plowed and then 3 or 4 days later the equipment would come back to the same area and plow Barnes and Cormack. I was informed Davis was a bus route. When I suggested the buses don’t travel on that section of Davis the story changed and was told it was a hill. When I informed them that there is little to no grade on Davis or Charella drive and Barnes and Cormack had a far greater grade the city employee hung up the phone. Good to see the Peter Principle alive and well at city hall.

I agree 100% with Give More. Snow removal is a natural part of living in Prince George, and has been done for 100 years. So why are we not able to get the job done in a timely fashion. Seems those in charge do not have the expertise to do the job correctly.

Wearing a fancy suit and tie, shining your shoes, and attending Council meetings will not get the job done. Sometimes it takes feet on the ground, and the ability to listen to those who actually have some experience. Not sure that passing this responsibility on to an Associate Director will solve the problem, however we should find out this winter.

Hopefully this is a long term solution, and not just being done this year for the Winter Games next year, and then back to the same old BS.

The City has many high paid Foreman driving around Prince George 24 hours a day during the winter. Perhaps we should give them a ruler and have them measure the snow, and report the conditions on a regular basis during the winter months.

Last year was an absolute disaster, and hopefully will never be repeated.

NoWay: “Whaaaaat? Isn’t environment canada free?”

Not by a long shot. But your lack of understanding of this explains a lot of your other posts.

http://weather.gc.ca/city/pages/bc-79_metric_e.html

I check this Canada Weather site daily. It is actually free! Well, maybe not entirely “free” as I am paying a monthly fee to the cable company for accessing the internet.

I doubt we will have any problem with snow removal if you live on the routes that will take peopel to and from the Winter games venues….well that will cover january…the rest of the winter will be just like last year…dismal….time to buy chains and good winter tires for the drive wheels I guess.

PG: “I check this Canada Weather site daily. It is actually free!”

No it is not. Environment Canada is government run. You pay for it through your taxes.

Easiest solution, contract snow removal out. Far to many high paid employee’s who feel they shouldn’t lower a blade for under $50.00 hr. It’s retarded to think of replacing aging equipment, let it be a contractors responsibility to maintain a fleet.
It truly baffles me why standardize work procedures aren’t enforced amongst the city employee’s.
-New management may be the answer for accountability.
-When is the next city contract talks, December?
-How more retard do things have to become before people start saying enough is enough.
-Force teachers back to work until contract talks are resolved. If they choose to hold a picket sign, oh well life is about choices. Replace them with unemployed teachers with pure unselfish attitudes.
-No alternatives! at the rate we’re going we may as well walk around pant less it would make it a lot easier to screw each other.

JB: “No it is not. Environment Canada is government run. You pay for it through your taxes.”

Splitting hairs again! One may consider living tax free like a hermit in a cave on top of a mountain waiting for people to once in a while bring a bowl of rice, for free!

Maverick 1965:”-No alternatives! at the rate we’re going we may as well walk around pantless it would make it a lot easier to screw each other.”

Thanks for the laugh! I nominate it for Funniest Remark Of The Week award!

Government run services that we all take for granted are not free, PG. That’s not hair splitting, that’s fact. There is a cost to providing them, and you and I are paying it.

It’s kind of like when I hear some people say that our medical system is ‘free’, when it is not.

Oh a personal attack JB bravo! If your brain had the capacity it might understand that the City of PG doesn’t have to pay extra for weather reports from Environment Canada. So free to use everyday at no extra charge to the City.

“•Hire a special weather forecasting service ($10 thousand)”

Where are they going to get their information from I wonder?

from what I have seen, The issue is not old equipment but in the implimentation of said equipment.
The previous years plan of plowing certain routes downtown and ignoring outside routes is the issue. That is why some areas get to be totally impassible. Last year I had to hire someone to plow our road to be able to get to work, no I don`t drive a small import but at more than 12 inches accumulated i couldn`t push thru.

My suggestion would be to use the graders to plow the main routes and get plow trucks out into the neighbourhoods. It does need to be down to the pavement but passible would be nice even a single pass. Then when the crunch is off you use the heavy equipment to cleanup before the next heavy snowfall.

Folks downtown need to realize their business won`t get any traffic if it can`t get out of the driveway to get downtown. And I generally snowblow the entire street infront of my property but I am aware many can`t, hence the need for city services

I agree with others above, the need to hire out the development of these priorities is a slap in the face. That is what we are paying big bucks to the people we hire to run this city to do. If they can`t do the job get someone who can.

City hall at all levels from council on down needs to be held more accountable. I suggest starting at the top and working on down. you can`t blame the employee for the poor decisions of management.

Performance needs to be reviewed and action taken when necessary to avert future failure.

Council needs to set the standards and budgets then review the results and hold the manager to task to see that we get results for our tax dollars.

Meteorologists up at the uni, use them. Stay away from the grant seeking climate scientists though, they might say what snow.

JB:”Government run services that we all take for granted are not free, PG.”

I don’t spend all my life resenting the fact that I and everybody else pays taxes. They are so much of a fact of life (death & taxes) that trying to make them and their “freeness” an object of debate is a waste of time! But thanks for illuminating me! I always assumed that all the services the governments provide are free and that the taxes I pay go to the some other mysterious non-government purposes! No need for the City to hire an environmental director to research the weather! Just visit the weather info on this site (for free) or the government’s – you won’t see a charge on your credit card!

(Hrrrmmmph!)

“I always assumed that all the services the governments provide are free and that the taxes I pay go to the some other mysterious non-government purposes”
Jim Iker, is that you? :P

Fassbender is that you?

I’m curious why the city has opted to purchase their equipment instead of leasing it from the manufacturer/dealer?

This city council and sad sack wanna be dick Harris mayor will mess these perfectly good recommendations up. They’ll pick the lame duck ones and leave out anything bold or unknown. Just watch.

I find it amazing that council and mayor couldn’t come up with these basic common sense improvements on their own. It seems as though no one is watching the store and administrators have no accountability for their performance after the fiasco of last winter. If we don’t have a council and mayor interested in taking on the responsibility of oversight then this is likely to be a repeat every time we get 12cm of snow.

IMO The new Council Code of Conduct regulation 15 is designed to have a firewall between administration and the elected council, so that when we have a fiasco like last winter everyone is in the dark as to why and nobody is to be held to account. Any elected official that signs on to those guidelines is not worthy of a vote, because it abdicates responsibility where it is needed most.

Instead of common sense arrived at through team work we pay for reports from third party lobbyists in Washington DC, because our hands are tied by bureaucratic nonsense like the new Council Code of Conduct.