By Dominic Abassi

Nanaimo snow and ice control under budget despite long hours

Dec 18, 2016 | 12:55 PM

NANAIMO — Despite having crews on the road nearly around the clock for periods over the last two weeks, it’s unlikely the city of Nanaimo will overspend on snow removal this year.

The city’s Finance department reports just over $294,000 of the $712,000 budget had been spent up until Dec. 13. That includes snow and ice control for the Parks and Rec department, as well as the $599,000 budget for roads.

“We can say we’ve been doing snow and ice operations pretty well since last Sunday when we got that first shot of snow,” said David Myles, the city’s manager of roads and traffic services. “We’ve had crews out through the days and through the evenings.”

There are about 150 staff in the Public Works department, 75 of which are on the snow and ice list, meaning they have been trained and are available, according to Myles. He says his staff have been putting in some incredibly long hours.

“The staff will come in and work their regular shift and then we’ll ask them if they’re willing to work another six or eight hours to get on a truck and plow snow…first day’s great, second day’s great, by the third day staff are getting tired,” said Myles.

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The main cost factor in the budget is fuel, Myles says, considering they are running vehicles around the clock. That’s followed by the extra labour costs and materials, like salt and sand.

With less than half of this year’s snow and ice control budget spent, it’s unlikely the city will go over before the budget roles over on Dec. 31.

In 2015, just $214,901 was spent dealing with winter weather, under 30 per cent of the total budget. The last time Nanaimo went over budget on snow and ice control was in 2014, when costs ran over by $147,000, according to information provided by the Finance department.

From 2012 through Dec. 13, 2016, $2.3-million has been spent to remove snow and deal with ice in Nanaimo.

Myles says he believes the roads budget is reduced a small amount next year.

He says for the most part, Public Works has been getting positive feedback from residents about their snow clearing efforts, with the exception of one common complaint.

“Everybody hates the snow plow when it pushes snow into their driveway after they’ve shoveled it out,” said Myles.

He says they will take any negative feedback and see if there are ways to improve the service delivery. One thing that is very challenging for their crews is residential streets that are lined on both sides with vehicles, according to Myles.

“We’ll get complaints saying the road is too narrow. It’s from the vehicles that are left on the road that make it much, much harder and creates a risk of damage to the vehicle from a plow going by.”

Myles states in an email that his crews were back out on the roads clearing priority and emergency routes as the snow flew Sunday morning. He states slippery sections and winter driving conditions will be a reality until an expected change to rainfall later in the day.