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Wed., January 4, 2017
Issue 35
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The snow grading and collection program continued to work full bore all week as Estevan was the recipient of another major dumping of snow this past week. Photo by Norm Park.
Snow removal continues unabated By Norm Park normpark@estevanmercury.ca
It’s like the old television commercial: Wash, shampoo, rinse, repeat. Only for Estevan’s public works team and their contracted help it becomes a system of grade, collect, remove, repeat, when it comes to snow removal this winter. City crews and local contractors are continuing their nearly around the clock program of snow management, collection and removal on a systematic basis according to a well-designed plan of attack. “I checked the roads on Christmas and some were blown in so our crews were out at 3 a.m. on Boxing Day,” said Lynn Ginnis, roads and drainage foreman for the City of Estevan, who assumed the duties of traffic director while manager Norm Mack was away this past week. The city’s two graders and three loaders were put into action and were quickly joined by two more graders and two loaders from local contractors that day. “Since then, we’ve
been going from 3 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day,” said Ginnis, who was, by mid-week, counting on 10 trucks and two large snow removal blowers along with the four graders. “We had all the priority streets graded into windrows that day and then as they started to remove the windrows, others got going on the Priority 2 streets, windrowing them and we’re now well underway on the Priority 3 streets today,” she said, when contacted by the Mercury on Dec. 29, three days after the most recent blizzard subsided, leaving about another 40 cm of snow in its wake. This blast of snow came right on the heels of the late November snow fall and the Dec. 5 and 6 blizzard that once again, blocked some city streets and avenues with large volumes. Crews had just cleaned out the majority of the roads, including some hard-to-get-at spots when Mother Nature decided to act up again. “We have about 10 city employees shuffling through various shifts at different hours but the mo-
rale remains good and local residents have been very supportive,” said Ginnis, noting how drivers are attempting to stay away from the heavy equipment and avoiding parking on streets that are to be cleaned out, when possible. Fatigue will, no doubt, become a factor, but Ginnis said so far, “everyone is going as hard as they can. We have a mandatory eight hours off rule though.” Running two sets of snow removal teams hasn’t been too onerous with personnel being able to juggle their shifts when necessary. “The contractors we have hired are very accommodating too. We all know that we have to stay ahead in this game. It could get ugly if we get another storm right on top of the one we just had. It’s best for the city if we can clear it away as fast as we can,” she said. The plan was to continue regular snow removal operations into Dec. 31 and then take a break for a few hours on New Years Day, before returning to the removal work early Monday. “We’ve had a few
minor equipment issues, mechanical breaks, both us and the contractors but the technicians/mechanics are fixing or replacing parts quickly. I know the contractors have had some staff come in off hours just so they can keep running at all hours. The police have been good too, helping with traffic control and we had to help on one ambulance call on Boxing Day, to get them into the hospital,” Ginnis said. “Just before Christmas
The Rural Municipality of Estevan councillors will be faced with an interesting proposal when they convene again for a regular business session next week. An application has been made for discretionary principal use of a medicinal cannabis greenhouse operation within the agricultural district of the local rural municipality. Although the actual proposed size of the greenhouse was not known to RM
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position. It’s just a ball park estimate right now, but each major snowfall will entail a removal cost of about $80,000,” he said. The snow removal budgets swing from one fiscal year into the next and are set annually by looking at different phases of need. “Doing the priority streets, keeping them open at all times, is a given,” he said, and the follow up work will go on as required to keep traffic flowing in the Energy City.
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I think we had only missed one block … one street that had to be cleaned, now we get to start over,” she said with a laugh. On the administrative side, city officials have been giving the snow cleanup crews the green light straight through. “Safety is the concern, so worrying about expenses on things like that, is never an option,” said City Manager, Jeff Ward. “The snow removal budget is not in a deficit
administrator Grace Potter, she noted it appeared it would be a rather substantial size to accommodate the proposal. A discretionary use development permit application notice has been issued and published in last week’s edition of Southeast Lifestyles. The intention is to consider a development permit application. The Mercury’s attempt to contact the proposed de-
veloper were unsuccessful. The RM council will be conducting a public meeting for ratepayers to discuss the application and that is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. at their municipal office on Fourth Street in Estevan. The RM of Estevan No. 5 council will receive written and verbal submissions respecting the proposed development and the permit process prior to and during their public meeting.