Snow and ice control update given to Calgary city council

The cityhopesto service all of Calgary'ssnowyresidential streets by the end of themonth, according to an update given to council today.

Alleys that provide the only vehicle access in the area will also be addressed in the next phase of the residential roads snow action plan.

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Roads director RyanJestinsays once the month-long plan for residential streets is completed with the help fromprivate contractors another assessment will be done on every street to see if more work is needed given recentsnowfall andchinooks.

The city estimates it will spend $12 million on roads in January alone since being hit with a record amount of snowfall over the past two months.

The entire budget for 2014 is $34 million.

Jestinsaid it is premature to say the city won't have enough in its snow andice control budget to complete the year.

The topic of mandatory snow tires also came up during the council meeting, but was shot down quickly.

"I'm not sure why we're talking about it," said MayorNaheedNenshi. "It really is an issue for the provincialgovernment."

Report expected in July

It seemedlike every councillor hadquestions or an issue with how the residential snow clearing program was going when it came up at city council.

Council debated the program for roughly two hours Monday because heavier than average snowfall this winter has led to some of the worst driving conditions in years on many residential streets.

A report onCalgary's snow and ice control program is not expected to come back to council until July.

The report will lookat how Calgary's efforts to clear its streets compares with other winter cities andwhether more contractors should be on stand-by.

Maintenance manager BillBienschsays the city's seven-day snow plan worksif there aresevendays between snowfalls, but that hasnot been the kind of winter that Calgaryhas had this year.

He says service requests,such as calls put into 311, do help identify roads that need more work.

Coun.Jim Stevenson has lived in his northeast community for 22 years and says he has never had a plow go down his street.

Jestin says the citynever promised snow would be removed from every residential street but each road would get some treatment.

Some communities have seen snow removed from the streetswhile othershave been visited by a plow for snow clearing orflat blading, but some communities haveseen nothing yet.

Communication breakdown

Jestin says their focus has been doing the workand not so much on communication, which has been challenging.

Coun. Brian Pincott said an example of the communication breakdown included some communitieslisted as being done whenno work was completed.July's report is expected to look at a better communication plan.

Jestinsaid the number of districts were cut from nine down to five, which seems to have hampered communication with council and residents.

He said it also took threeweeks to get enough equipment from the private sector for snow clearing.

Coun. Shane Keatingalso wants the city toconsider having more private contractors on stand-by to help the city with snow clearing and other jobs, such as pothole repair and street cleaning in the spring and parks maintenance in the summer.

It doesn't mean we have vast amounts of money invested in equipment on the city basis or we have more individuals or employees on the city payroll. What it allows for is a much more flexible system where you can expand or contract as needed, he said.

Coun. RichardPootmansalso wonderedif the city needs a more robust snow budget or bigger reserve fund to handle extreme situations like this winter.