Snow removal was top of mind at the Town of Vermilion’s Dec. 16 regular council meeting as council continued its review of policies and bylaws.
The Snow Removal and Ice Control Policy establishes guidelines for snow removal and ice control within the town by identifying priority areas.
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Administration reviewed the bylaw and offered the cost to remove snow in its downtown core if they were to only contract the service.
“The quoted cost for a single snow removal event downtown by contracted services only, no town services, would be $18,700,” said Shannon Harrower, Town of Vermilion CAO. “This would include the use of one grader, two loaders with end dumps and four tandem trucks with end dumps.
“This would be the route that we’d recommend budgeting for if council wished to pursue that option.”
The town will also be adding to its fleet in January.
“In January, we have a new bin adding to our fleet with an additional capacity,” said Harrower. “Currently, we have two tandem trucks with 16-yard capacity bins. The new bin will have a 25-yard capacity, which is expected to significantly improve snow removal efficiency and reduce clean up times.”
According to Harrower, downtown snow removal currently takes approximately 20 hours to complete. With the addition of the 25-yard bin, the time is expected to almost halve to approximately 11 hours. With the reinstatement of contracted services, everything would speed up further.
“If we were to reinstate the funding for contracted trailer services, the downtown core could be completed within a day,” she said.
Originally, the town used contracted trailer services, but it was axed as a cost-cutting measure.
“If council were to proceed with this option, administration would be looking to allocate an additional $25,000 for contracted trailer services and we would anticipate a significant improvement in the timeliness of snow removal for both the school areas and the downtown core, allowing remaining priorities to be addressed much sooner,” said Harrower, noting the $25K would be for the whole winter season.
“This would ensure that our snowblower is not sitting waiting for trucks as it does now with our limited fleet.”
She said the snowblower is currently operating at just 10 to 15 per cent capacity, meaning it often sits idle. With the addition of a new bin in January, usage is expected to increase to 30 to 35 per cent. She added the snowblower could be used up to 80 per cent of the time with the addition of two end-dump trucks through contracted services.
Harrower noted school areas would still remain the top priority for snow removal and would always be cleared first. Once work is done in those areas, crews would move downtown.
Council also requested information from administration regarding what they do about vehicles parked in the hospital area as the town tries to plow.
“We do put up signs asking people to move their vehicles,” said Harrower. “There are instances when people do not move their vehicles, and this year, we are going to be more strict in our bylaw enforcement.
“If the vehicles are not moved, our bylaw officer will be issuing tickets in that regard.”
During the Dec. 16 meeting, administration was also asked about property owners who don’t have snow removed from their properties within 48 hours.
“Our peace officer and myself, we’ve been talking about that a lot. In the past, it’s been really positive with him just issuing a warning where it’s been cleaned up and then a fine afterward,” said Mike Van Der Torre, director of community services.
“If it’s not cleaned up, he does fine and he has fined quite a bit the last year. I told him to step it up a little bit this year just on council’s direction because there was a lot of complaints.”
Coun. Kellen Snelgrove expressed his support in hiring trailers for snow removal.
“I don’t think it makes a whole lot of sense to go to fully-contracted services, but I strongly support the addition of hired trailers,” he said.
Throughout the discussion surrounding the item, council discussed specifics around areas being changed to priority zones.
Council approved the policy as presented and directed administration to ring back amended schedules A & B, which are maps showing priority snow removal routes and sidewalk snow removal routes. Council also approved the hiring of contracted services for snow removal for $25,000.
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