By Staff
January 9th, 2018
BURLINGTON, ON
A reality check.
Report from city hall:
Snow Update: January 9, 2017 4:00pm
Snow clearing operations are complete.
Staff are continuing to address concerns.
Clean up continues to ensure catch basins are clear to reduce potential for flooding.
Photograph from Alton Village – at basically the same time.
The Alton resident did say that the city sent someone out to check on the quality of the snow clearance.
A plow cam e through the other night. We had 6 inches of snow and 2″ ice pack. The plow came through at at least 60km per hour and skimmed the top 2 inches only. Barely sprinkled any sand. When I called to complain the subcontracted plow did not due his job I was told “too bad”. And the City Manager cut the amount of “sand” allowed on secondary roads. I could sprinkle more with my hand and bucket of sand than was put down. Meanwhile 3 blocks away, another secondary road is plowed and crystal clean. Our Councillor lives on that street.
Now its raining and the storm catch basins are blocked. We now have a lake.
OH MY….Our street isn’t done!!!! My 74 yr old Neighbour ran and tried to get the plow drivers attention, who passed our street and plowed a street where there are no house and no one lives!!! (Willow St.)
Here’s the reality check–snow clearing this year has been abysmal. When we had our first serious snowfall, I had to drive to Oakville first thing in the morning.
At 7:30, Burlington’s main arterials had barely been plowed with no work being done on side streets but when I crossed Burloak on Lakeshore, Lakeshore was mostly wet having been plowed and salted. Many of the main streets I passed had already been plowed. Am I missing something here? Further, snow clearing on my street in South Burlington has been sporadic and not well done. The main strategy by the City seems to be to get cars to drive on the snow, hard pack it and continue to drive on it. When I first moved to Burlington in the 1970’s, I couldn’t believe how good the snow clearing was but in the past several years it has continued to deteriorate to the point of being abysmal now. Perhaps the mayor and council should FOCUS on the EFFICIENT PROVISION OF ESSENTIAL SERVICES rather than thinking great thoughts in their comfortable offices on Brant St.
i Have no sympathy for Alton. I lived there and saw what some homeowners did and seen the plow stop at the end of the street and skip it because they can’t make it down , or they started to go down and had to reverse the Giant piece of equipment – which is dangerous.
1. Park in the street, not on the same side but across from a car and not even the plow nor a fire truck could get through. Leave their car overnight and the next morning after the plow went by it was like and obstacle course going around the giant snow mounds from where the cars were during the storm.
2. The plow would go by and some would throw the snow back on the road, dollars to donuts, the people who complain about taxes are the ones throwing it back in the road
3 don’t shovel the sidewalk that borders their property. Really. Takes 5 minutes. And just think if everyone shovelled their sidewalk, city crews can work on areas where there isn’t a landowner bordering that sidewalk.
What does the city need to do, ticket and tow! Ticket and tow those who park on the street during snow storms and ticket those who are throwing the snow back in the street. I bet when the plow has to come back to plow a steet or the laybys, it’s at overtime rates, which is costing everyone.
I believe this has nothing to do with space to clear. The old parts of the City with lots of room have not been cleared.
This is budget driven management at it’s finest. The plowing isn’t being done on a service level, it’s being done on a budget. It looks like a long and harsh winter so they lowered their standards to conserve the budget. It would be better if they came out and said that. It’s insulting that they think Burlington residents won’t notice that the snow clearing that has been done to date this year is a joke compared to recent years.
I wonder if they ran a significant surplus during the recent mild winters? Probably not. I believe this is a significant problem with how government entities run. They focus so much on a budget they forget practicality sometimes.
They have an ever-present fear of having your budget trimmed next year and they are afraid to go over budget even if it’s the right thing to do.
In these new developments there is hardly any room to move the snow to.