Good afternoon everyone. In the world of winter control, there are two givens each year. The short thaw that takes place during the first week of January and the major snow event that happens within 7 days of Superbowl Sunday!
Well as I’m sure you’ve heard by now, a major weather system is moving into our area sometime late tonight. As with every major storm, snow accumulation will occur faster than we are able to clear it. Once the storm wanes, you’ll see the roads quickly cleared. For the new Councillors, during a snow storm our focus is on the major arterials and bus routes. We focus on these to keep transportation moving within the City. The side streets will become difficult to traverse, but once on the major streets, residents should be able to get to where they are heading albeit at a slow rate.
Clearing the residential roadways will commence once the storm has stopped. I understand the major system is being followed almost immediately by a minor system which will deposit additional snow. We’ll have to watch this to determine if we should wait until it passes to commence residential clearing. Although we do try to avoid back to back clearing of residential roadways, whether we wait or proceed is a discretionary call which attempts to balance our desire to minimize winter control cost against the residents’ degree of difficulty traversing their streets.
Sam Mattina will communicate with everyone as things develop so you are aware of how staff are responding to the community need.
Hopefully you’ll be in a position/location to enjoy what sounds like this winter’s first major event. Staff