Towns prepared for winter’s wrath

Last spring’s abundant snowfall put Turner Valley’s snow removal budget in the red, but the Town is not worried. Andy Pfeifer, Turner Valley director of engineering and municipal operations, said the Town is $1,080 over its $50,000 budget for snow removal so far this year. He expects with the Town owning its own snow removal equipment and autumn’s smaller snow events, the Town won’t go further over budget. “Normally this time of year you don’t get heavy snow, you get these small one and two-inch – just wait a minute and it will melt – snowfalls,” he said, adding the Town’s policy for snow removal is six inches of snow and more. “The spring is where you get the lion’s share of the budget and last year we used it all up. We had three of those big heavy dumps.” With Turner Valley owning graders, a loader with a snow-blower attachment and small equipment for snow removal, Pfeifer said the only expense beyond operating costs is getting the snow trucked off the roads. “Basically our snow budget is a budget to contract small trucking outfits that haul it from the snowblower to our snow dump,” he said. Before the Town purchased its own snow removal equipment, Pfeifer said it cost about $150,000 annually for snow removal - the average cost for three major snow events. “Now that we have the equipment - council has been very gracious over the years - we don’t have to rely on waiting for a bunch of contractors to come out and help,” he said. “We’ve been working towards that for some time now. We’ve really streamlined our snow budget from years previous.” In 2017 the Town spent $28,940 in snow removal and in 2016 it spent $24,747.94. When the Town exceeds its snow removal budget, money is withdrawn from an emergency snow removal fund that is accumulated in years the Town is under budget. Last year Turner Valley was about $13,000 under its $42,000 snow removal budget and in 2016 it was $75,000 under its $100,000 snow removal budget, Pfeifer said. The Town’s snow removal reserve currently sits at $75,252. “With the winters we’ve been having so far we don’t look like we have to increase our snow removal budget,” he said. “Last spring just hit us hard.” If the region experiences heavy snowfall before 2019, Pfeifer said the Town will have to dip into its emergency reserve again. “We’re ready for winter,” he said. “We’ve got all the proper equipment and training and we’re pretty proud that we can remove the snow from the streets in four days. In the meantime, with our smaller equipment and graders we’ll manage intersections and hills to make it safe for travel.” Unlike Turner Valley, the Town of Black Diamond is under budget. It spent $63,000 on snow removal last spring, according to Sharlene Brown, Black Diamond chief administrative officer. She said the Town set its weather-related events budget at $100,000 for 2018, which also takes into consideration damage to trees from heavy snow and wind. The Town of Black Diamond also has its own snow removal equipment, Brown said, and contracts outside resources when necessary, such as after large snowfall events. “We bought some equipment to deal specifically with snow so that we don’t have to contract it out,” she said, adding the Town purchased a snowblower a year ago. Brown said the Town’s remaining budget should get it through the remainder of 2018. Any remaining money at the end of each year is transferred to a reserve weather-related account, if approved by council, Brown said. The reserve, which currently sits at about $147,000, is capped at $150,000 and council decides what to do with any excess amount, she said. “We want to keep our reserves in and around $150,000 because over the past five years we’ve taken a look and said what does it cost us to actually deal with weather-related events and so that was an average over that time period,” she said. The Town policy requires snow removal when snowfall reaches 10 centimetres, said Brown. “Snow removal is a level of service that we offer to community,” she said. “I’m glad that we do our snow removal the way we do it and it’s a good service to our community. The weather is something that’s going to continue to happen and snow removal is in council’s hands, depending on budget restrictions.”