Snow Removal Taxing Budget

Thursday, November 30, 2006 03:59 AM

Cleaning up the snow from Prince George City streets this past month is straining the snow removal budget.

The annual budget is about $4.2 million, and as of the end of the third quarter (end of September) about $2.6 million had been used. Certainly the unusually heavy snowfall throughout November will have eaten away at a significant amount of the balance. "Normally, the snow at this time of year melts, and we don’t have to mechanically remove it" says Manager of Transportation, Frank Blues "But the colder temperatures mean the snow has stayed, and has to be mechanically removed, and that increases the costs."

There is a snow removal contingency that may have to be tapped in to.

Blues says right now, the City has 57 people working on the streets crews, and that means they are short 5 people. Like other employers, the City is having difficulty finding the qualified people needed to fill the gaps. The added problem is that the jobs may not be full time. "We would welcome hearing from any qualified drivers who have winter driving experience" says Blues.

Blues keeps tabs on weather trends in Prince George as a way to prepare a budget "I can tell you this, winter has been kind for the past five years, and I have noticed two trends. One, temperatures have been climbing, and two, the amount of snowfall has been declining."

Of course, this year would be considered a "blip" on that trend radar.

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Posted on Thursday, November 30, 2006 03:59 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: jonnypg on November 30 2006 4:46 AM

We should have lots of money for snow removel saved up from past years!This is only november, one month and they are complaning about money already,we have a few months of winter left still.

Posted by: acrider54 on November 30 2006 6:10 AM

We'll be in real trouble if we get the snow we used to years ago. Remember 1982?

Posted by: Marty on November 30 2006 7:40 AM

Please correct me if i am off by a year. ( sure most of you will lol )

But in 1996 we got serious cold, and large amounts of snow...been gentle ever since that I recall.

Posted by: Big_B on November 30 2006 9:21 AM

Acidrider, I do remember 1982. I remember the snow levels actually being as high as our porch roof.

Great time to be a skier or snowmobiler. The snowshoeing was unreal.

Posted by: owl on November 30 2006 9:38 AM

The record was 1973 for amount of snow. PG got almost as much as Ottawa normally got in those days. Things have changed.

I can recall not being able to get through our residetnial street because the city rotates through streets in order of importance over a three or four day period. We got hit with signinficant (for here) snowfalls about three or four times, one shortly after another, and our subdivision's residential streets never got plowed.

As far as budget goes .... hopefully we will not get back into situations of snow not being plowed because someone thinks it might melt, or they simply ran out of money. To me that is just like saying that the fire department will only fight half a fire because they think it will rain or they do not have the money.

Snow removal is an essential service in a winter city.

Posted by: lou on November 30 2006 9:47 AM

This is Prince George.
NORTHERN capital of BC.
I's going to snow (lots)
I's Nov. and we are talking budget already-
someone has screwed up-
do what you did at CN Center--Fire them.
Roads need to be cleared.
NOTE: When it was REALLY cold-it did not snow-so NO snow removal was needed--we only got a FEW sand trucks out.

Posted by: duffer on November 30 2006 10:03 AM

Johnny, I think the snow clearing budget goes by the calendar year, so that means we have only one month left for this year's budget and then we start on 2007.

Posted by: thereasonableman on November 30 2006 1:13 PM

I think nobody has a monopoly on mismanagement at any governmental level. Money that should be there was obviously diverted, with the expectation that we will have another milder than normal winter. Oh well, the system is slowly imploding anyway so it's going to get worse.