Snow removal efforts by the City of Weyburn should go more smoothly in the new year, once a vital piece of equipment is replaced.
During the last City Council meeting, councillors approved the purchase of a new loader-mounted snow blowing unit in 2011, which will make snow removal efforts much more efficient, according to Director of Engineering Rene Richard.
"We've had nothing but trouble with our blower for the last four to five years," said Richard.
City crews have been unable to complete a single downtown snow removal operation with the blower since 2008. Without the blower, a typical overnight operation has been taking crews about 12 hours to complete, a job that should take about eight hours with the proper equipment.
A blower is capable of loading a tandem truck in well under a minute but without it, two loader trucks must be utilized to load trucks.
Richard said that the City judges their snow removal procedure case-by-case and uses common sense to evaluate which streets need clearing. This differs from a city like Estevan, according to Richard, which has a set limit of eight inches of accumulated snow before sending out crews.
Richard said that when Weyburn sees a snow storm, City crews first clear priority routes, including streets housing emergency services and main travel routes. The downtown area is cleared overnight and the snow is hauled away.
Residential streets are only done when necessary and have all been done at least once this winter, according to Richard.
As for sidewalks, residents and businesses are expected to clear the sidewalks that are located in front of their homes and buildings.
