Snow Budget Under Scrutiny Later Today

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 03:55 AM

Prince George, B.C. -- City crews may have gone into the red trying to keep our roads and streets free of 'the white stuff'...

In her report to city council, Financial Services Manager, Sandra Stribany, says preliminary results for 2009, show snow control costs exceeded budget. She says administration is analyzing the results further and the options with respect to both operating costs and funding levels.

The city funds snow removal operations through a snow control reserve -- the reserve is funded by a tax levy, included annually in property taxes.

For 2010, the snow control operations budget is set at $5.05-million dollars, but the amount put into the tax levy will be $5.25-million dollars...up $250-thousand from last year.

The snow control budget is one of three items on the agenda for this afternoon's budget meeting, which begins at 4:30pm in council chambers. The evening meeting gets underway at 7pm and will consider the budgets for solid waste, sewer and water operations, parks and the cemetary.

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Posted on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 03:55 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: IMO on February 17 2010 7:52 AM

Our road did not get plowed after the last snow fall. It melted and froze a few times and now its like driving on a car breaker. Rediculous!

Posted by: Waterbed-Willy on February 17 2010 7:58 AM

My road has only been plowed twice this year.

Posted by: Simon on February 17 2010 8:39 AM

I wonder what the statistics are for vehicle accidents caused by poor road conditions in PG are this winter.

Posted by: Thunder on February 17 2010 8:50 AM

Usually we end up with the majority of our snowfall after January, resulting in a shortage in the early months of the next winter (the following November / December). It will be interesting to see how this measures up this time around, seeing as the snowfall since January has been minimal.

Posted by: Retired on February 17 2010 10:18 AM

They will find some excuse to give us ma bunch of blarney on why there were overruns in the snow budget. These people at city hall couldn�t organize a wiener roast.
Cheers

Posted by: taxinapothole on February 17 2010 10:52 AM

Can someone tell me why these clowns are spending snow removal money on clearing off the center islands all over town, while the snow is melting? This has been going on since our new snow budget came in effect January 1, 2010. It was going on after our 2009 snow budget was exhausted, and the 2010 snow budget was not in place yet!

I would like to jump on this band wagon! How about the City "PAY" compensation to taxi drivers that report this waste of tax payers dollars. My God, I see so much in a night. You want to save tax payers dollars, employ me as an adviser.

I'm serious, all of you would be very surprised, and interested in what I see at night, in regards to wasteful spending by our City.

Posted by: taxinapothole on February 17 2010 10:57 AM

P.S. Taxi drivers could also give all of you, and City Hall, a pothole by pothole report on our horrible roads! Taxi drivers get to experience them all. Most of you have no idea how really bad they are, and the waste of money being spent on superficial repairs.

Posted by: He spoke on February 17 2010 11:30 AM

sniff sniff sniff, sounds like another study coming out of this.

Posted by: Thunder on February 17 2010 2:55 PM

The potholes are outrageous. Worse and worse, year after year. They are patched, then reappear a few days later. What a total waste of taxpayer money, watching these guys walk behind the city vehicle, fill these holes and stomp on them a bit then carry on to the next one. One freezing evening later, it's back to square one! Why even bother? I can't help but wonder if it would simply be cheaper to re-pave rather than re-patch every few weeks? What am I talking about anyway, geez, Ospika Blvd was just paved not long ago and it's a mess as well.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on February 17 2010 3:26 PM

Not rocket science.
It snows in Prince George every winter,sooner or later.
If they can't figure out how to plow it,maybe they could figure out how to fill potholes with it?
Never seen so many potholes, and it does seem they get worse every year.
Guess that's what happens when nobody does anything about them during the summer?

Posted by: anniemartin on February 17 2010 6:51 PM

Doesn't seem to matter how much or how little snow Prince George receives they never budget enough and side streets rarely get plowed so it is hard to understand where the money goes. I have never seen a city that struggles so much with budgets. We pay some of the highest taxes and it appears to be wasted on studying problems versus solving problems.

Posted by: pg250fan on February 17 2010 10:33 PM

I think they struggle on budgets because they don't care - and why should they, City officials appear to be able to do anything they want with no fear of consequences. If they didn't constantly have to work on budgets and raise taxes, they would have too much time on their hands to actually do anything - like think about how bad a job they are doing. Its the decision makers we should be after here - not the guys on the machines that a great job of listening to their unfortunate low-functioning supervisors and line managers who are ill equipped to think about how to spend money effectively. Department heads and middle managers at the City should be held accountable for this kind of overspending as they are the ones that know what's up but are too lazy or inept to do anything about it.