Well if that is all they budgeted for for snow removal they must all live in the lower mainland...one snow fall and they are out of money?
....snow removal and pot holes....

Mustave blew all the snow removal money on their trip to China. Usually they don't run out of "snow removal" money till mid January. On a typical year that's about the 5th snow fall. Cheers.

What is the fiscal year? Beginning of January to the end of December or beginning of April to end of March? If it's January to December I't not so bad but April to March someone really crewed up.

I believe its January - December. We did have a large amount of snow in Jan Feb and Mar of 2008.

I think you're right it is Jan to Dec
So the snow falls in early 08 are what used the most of the $4 Mill so it's not so bad if it stays cold & not much snow or sand/gravel

Well, that explains why people perceive the crews were slow to move on that first big snow dump.

They likely were due to budget constraints.

While the city budget has ballooned over the years, and while we've sprawlled the city with development after development, it doesn't seem we've added much to the snow budget. In relative terms I believe it's been shrinking.

Also, we've invested a tonne in trail systems, but clearly we have no budget, strategy, equipment or priorities regarding snow removal along key walking routes. Go ahead and try to walk to Pine Centre via that wonderful tail beside the Treasure Cove - complete ice path from end to end - very difficult and very dangerous, as are just about all walking paths that are not sidewalks beside a road.

It does not matter when the fiscal year starts and ends, the bottom line is the city knows that we get snow and sometimes a lot of it and should budget according. Not paying for the invisible trucks and drivers that they say are clearing the snow. Maybe they should not put $400,000.00 toward an airline to Seattle, which was the stupidest waste of our tax money, or giving money for the PAC which nobody will be able to go to, buying land for the PAC when the city owns a lot land alreadyThis is all just mismanaging our tax money, put it in the fund for snow removable and fixing the potholes not the really studip ideas of the councelors. I think all of us in P.G. would be happier with that.

There is a strategy for those trails - skiis, snowshoes, crampons, take you pick. Those are trails, not sidewalks. The people using them need to learn how to choose the righ footgear for them in the various seasons.

We need to figure out a way to make money by clearing snow. Maybe do something like some ranchers. Invite people to come here on a working holiday. They can spend a week pay $750 a day for accommodation, some training of how to drive a truck with a snowplow in front of it, and then go to work clearing the streets. Learn what it is like to be a city worker or contractor in a winter city.

I am sure some spin doctors could turn it into a very romantic job and once in a lifetime opportunity for people from southern countries to spend some time here.

One can also think of it as giving poor people in the North some joy.

All one has to do is put one's thinking cap on and our problems will be solved. Just think of the wonderful articles in the newspapers the world over.

As I sit and type this at this very moment, they are outside clearing my already cleared and sanded road. It was already done so well before today that I of all people (I don't drive on snow or ice unless I have to force myself for something important) got in my van yesterday and drove down our hill.

I don't understand obviously.

heidi
why don`t you phone the city and ask...surely they have to report to someone. I know they take calls for clearing problems.......

Snow removal budgets were never really a problem in all the years I have lived here. Once in a while you would hear about it getting low, but not often.

We have not had any snow yet and they are saying it is getting low.

Does the olympics ring a bell?
Cameron street bridge?
PAC?

Get the idea?

You can all be sure that all cities, towns and villages are paying their fair
or unfair share of our tax dollars to the province to pay for the Olympics.

Thats why we are paying such high taxes with endless increases and seeing nothing getting done in our cities, towns and villages throughout the province.

I still think the city does a reasonable job keeping our main roads open, so that we can get to work. The side streets might get some accumulations, but generally after a major dump, it is cleaned up with in three days.

The snow removal budget is still a wild guess at best. Can you predict how much snow we are going to get between Jan 2010 and Dec 2010. Nobody can. Can you predict the cost of fuel within 2 cents for that time period. Nobody can.

Keep hearing about all these people complaining about the snow on there street and the snow removal budget being blown..... Its one or the other. Its easy to complain on a blog site.

Either way, the city still has to plow the main streets if it gets a dump. They just won't plow the residential areas if it is under 4 inches between now and the new year. Just defer this cost til next year.

Lostfaith, the fiscal year for snow removal starts in January and ends in December, thus this is the time when we do run low on our snow removal budget. Thus making your comments worthless.

Isn't it amazing that the City was surprised at one large snowfall? I've talked to a lot of people, all whom have lived here for years, and they say it always snows in the winter here. It isn't different at all. The only difference is that appalling lack of maintenance apparent now. Why, please tell me, is the City unaware that we routinely have snow, often a lot of it, in the winter and can't budget appropriately? Of course we have to have "pie-in-the sky" things like the Performing Arts Centre get the first crack at the available monies...Isn't it time to get back to basic needs?

Lostfaith, you've got it: Olympiaphobia.

It snows here, that is a given, we may have had a few years where El Nino made the snow removal budget look good, but surely the city is not counting on global warming to improve their budget? I wonder how many people remember/survived the winter of 1982? We had normal amounts of snowfall until the xmas of 81 and then it NEVER quit. January, Febuary...dig yourself out of your driveway in the morning...dig yourself in at night. The Pine Center had to be shovelled for fear of collapse. I don't know how much fell that season (it would be interesting to compare) but I shudder to think of how the city will handle removal if even a quarter of that falls in the next couple of months.

1982 may have been the year that the mayor at that time made a comment that don't worry about the snow because it will melt in July and sure enough it did. I hope that Mayor Rogers is not that stupid.The city has a pretty good idea of how much the budget from year to year for snow clearing should be. We never seem to get the same amount of snow every year some years more some less put more money away and if it is not needed then that is a bonus for next year. The P.G. Pulpmill Rd has chip trucks, chemical trucks, fuel trucks and buses on it all day and night and they do not seem to worry about that, it should be one of the first roads done hasardous goods on it, make no never mind to the city.

anyone notice how much ice is forming on the Nechako?...hmmmm what budget?

Posted by: He speaks on December 15 2008 9:26 AM

Lostfaith, the fiscal year for snow removal starts in January and ends in December, thus this is the time when we do run low on our snow removal budget. Thus making your comments worthless.

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You calling my comments worthless?
Get a life mouthpiece

Junco, we had over 12 feet in 81/82 and that was in the bowl, nevermind the Hart snowbelt.

Acrid54 As a snowbelt dweller, I raise you a foot, lol. 12 feet is an amazing amount of snow. The only positive is that I was a lot younger then and could shovel a lot more snow, without crippling myself, lol.