LAC LA BICHE – Administration will look in to the cost of clearing sidewalks on Main St in Lac La Biche and Plamondon after a unanimous motion by Lac La Biche County Council.
The topic was initially raised by Ward 7 Coun. John Mondal, who suggested removing the snow from the new sidewalks would be a good maintenance step, rather than seeing business owners throw salt all over them.
“I really want to know what the administration has to say on this, how much would it be costing or how much time would it take in order to do snow removal in a given year?” said Mondal.
According to Lac La Biche County CAO Manny Deol, the county already has all the necessary equipment to clear snow from sidewalks but doesn’t do it because council had directed them not to in the past.
Ward 3 Coun. Colette Borgun was opposed to the county clearing the snow from sidewalks in Lac La Biche and asked that residents be reminded to clear sidewalks themselves.
“We didn’t raise the taxes and now we’re going to do additional services? I think we need to just sometimes keep with the program. We had said no snow removal on sidewalks,” said Borgun.
“If we're going to go open this up and talk about snow removal policies, then let's open it up and actually put everything on the table,” said Stedman.
Ward 7 Coun. Lorin Tkachuk asked administration to report back on how staff are doing with respect to the current standard of service.
“As much as I would love to see our Snow CAT going up and the snow removal done on the sidewalks and then the road done at the same time, I think we got to put some work into what we've already committed to doing for snow removal. I would really like to see a report, though, of how many times we're missing that accumulated date,” said Tkachuk.
Ward 6 Coun. Sterling Johnson thought county staff were already likely exceeding the standard of service set out in the policy.
“I think we've been really proactive, but I think our residents have come to want more and more and more. And every time there's an inch of snow on it, they want their road done,” said Johnson. He added that any time the roads are getting slippery “that has to be addressed, no matter what.”
Ward 1 Coun. Darlene Beniuk asked for staff to follow the policy about clearing approaches on rural roads. She said her experience is that it often doesn’t get done, and when she has complained about it, hers was done but none of her neighbours were.
“And for that, I was angry, because anybody driving by goes, ‘Oh well, the councillor got her approach done.’ First time in 17 years. Otherwise, I have to look after it myself,” said Beniuk.
A motion directing administration “to present options, including cost and liability considerations for Main Street sidewalk snow removal in Lac La Biche and Plamondon, and rural areas by the county,” was carried with unanimous support.
