Three major snow events in just as many months has put the Town of Turner Valley over budget for snow removal for 2018, and Black Diamond is not far behind.
Turner Valley Town council agreed on March 7 to transfer $25,000 from the Town’s snow removal reserve to this year’s interim budget, which included $42,000 to remove the white stuff from streets. While spending another $25,000 wasn’t an easy decision for the frugal council, councillors agreed it’s necessary.
“I’m always concerned about spending money, but that being said it’s a unique year,” said Coun. Garry Raab. “I think we have the best snow removal for a small town, even better than the City of Calgary and Town of Okotoks. Maybe we have to look at that and maybe we can’t do snow removal as much as we do. I’m concerned about the fall because if we get dumped on in the fall it’s going to problematic.”
Coun. Barry Crane said it’s the first time in years the Town dipped into snow removal reserves.
“In the previous four years I don’t think we had to touch the reserves once, which means we were dumping into the reserve,” he said, referring to the Town’s policy to place remaining money in the budget for snow removal into the special account.
The Town has about $75,000 in its snow removal reserves, said Heather Thomson, interim chief administrative officer.
She said the Town had budgeted $42,000 for snow removal in 2017. Although it initially set funding at the same level for the 2018 interim budget, Thomson said the Town will look to increase to $50,000 when council considers the final budget later this month.
Thomson said the $25,000 transfer will be used for snow events this fall. If all the money isn’t needed, it will be transferred back into reserves, she said.
When it comes to snow removal, the Town is equipped with a grader, loader, tandem dump truck and snow blower, Thomson said.
“It takes the Town three days to clear all of the streets in Turner Valley using our snow blower and contracted trucks,” she said. “The snow blower can fill a typical tandem in less than one minute. It’s a very efficient process.”
The Town’s policy states that snow removal takes place when 15 cm of snow has accumulated or when snowdrifts impede traffic. It’s done based on priorities, including major throughways, school bus routes, emergency services with residential streets and secondary roads being lower priorities, said Thomson.
“Staff availability, contractor (trucks) availability and timing of the snow fall all play a role in how we prioritize the snow removal also,” she said. “There is no set rule on where we start or how we progress as far as removal.”
The cost of removal for each snow event depends on the amount of snow volume. The average cost is between $20,000 to $25,000, including trucking and bulldozer fees for piling snow at the snow dumping sites, said Thomson, adding all contractors are local businesses.
Black Diamond was just $4,000 shy of exceeding its snow removal budget this year following snowfall in early March. This doesn’t include costs for staffing early this month nor last week’s snowfall, said Sharlene Brown, chief administrative officer.
Following the three major snowfall events, and another last weekend, Black Diamond administration is recommending council increase its weather-related contracted services budget for 2018 to $120,000 from its interim budget of $70,000 during today’s council meeting.
The amount spent on contracted services for snow removal as of March 9 was $63,165. Snow removal costs reached almost $70,000 last year.
“The cost depends on the amount of snow and timing,” Brown said. “If we look at the early March event the snow happened on Friday and continued on Saturday so there was overtime on the snow removal on Saturday. That amount will go up once we tally our staff time into that.”
Brown said the Town can tap into its weather-related reserve fund, which currently has a balance of just under $170,000.
The Town owns a snow blower, grader, loader and dump truck and snow removal is done on a priority basis, with school bus routes and business corridors being at the top of the priority list. Parks and playgrounds come next and residential property as the last priority, Brown said.
Whether residential areas receive snow removal often depends on the budget, Brown said.
“If there is enough money in the budget we can do the whole town,” she said. “We can’t necessarily afford to do every street each time it snows so there has to be a balance, which is why we went through the priority routing system.”
Brown said it’s important residents help to make the process efficient and cost-effective when doing their own snow removal from driveways and sidewalks.
“We appreciate the community working together to remove snow but when we have large piles of snow that are running eight to 10 feet high in the road system we have to deal with those issues,” she said. “Now the Town has to be able to mitigate the melt and that snow pile which means via extra removal. We have to be cognizant of where they are placing the snow.”
