The City of Estevan expects to offer the same level of snow removal as it did this past winter.
Estevan city council approved the snow removal policy for 2017-18 at its meeting on Monday night. The timing was fitting, since it came just days after the city received a couple of dustings of snow that created some icy road conditions. Those conditions improved once sand was applied.
“I think the people demand (quality) snow removal,” said Norm Mack, the roads and drainage manager for the city’s public works division. “It was obvious last year that it’s what the people want.”
Mack said the city spent a lot of money on snow removal last winter, thanks to five large snowstorms that hammered the city from late November to early March.
“But we have to practical, too,” said Mack. “If there is three or four inches, we’re not going out and moving snow on priority 3s. We’ll let them pack.
“So people have to understand that last year, with all those storms, we had no choice. We just had to do it … because there was so much of it.”
Mack hopes the weather will co-operate and the city will spend as little on snow removal as possible during the last two months of 2017.
But he said the snow removal is now the way people like it.
"Last year was sort of a proving ground for us and I think it worked," said Mack. "We see no need for change, and hopefully we could have a little less snow than last year."
This week's edition of the Mercury will have more on this story.
