The Town of Westlock’s lone grader is working around the clock to keep the streets clear for drivers and the municipality is reminding residents to keep their walks clear.
Interim chief administrative officer Simone Wiley said their grader starts work at midnight every day to clear roads for commuters.
“Hospitals, schools and commercial roads get done first,” she said. “Then we move into residential areas.”
She estimated that the town will spread close to 300 square metres of sand this winter as streets are systematically plowed.
Owners of vehicles are asked to remove them from marked streets to ensure the grader can plow the entire road. Drivers who don’t move their vehicles risk getting trapped in the snow as the grader will simply move around them.
“We are not towing people right now,” said Wiley. “Our peace officer will go out and try to find the registered vehicle owner and get it moved. If we can’t make contact with anyone, our last resort is to move around the vehicle.
“It’s not ideal, so we really appreciate people’s cooperation in keeping vehicles off the street when we’re doing snow removal.”
While the grader works the streets, the town is asking residents to keep their sidewalks clear, noting that the town’s snow removal bylaw requires walkways be shoveled within 24 hours of a heavy snowfall.
Wiley said that the town will issue warnings to residents about snow removal first, but they could issue $100 fines for not clearing a sidewalk and $250 for piling snow in front of a fire hydrant.
“We take the less enforcement approach if we can,” she said. “We give people the opportunity to clear their sidewalk before going the fine route.”
Wiley added she had not received complaints from residents about the state of sidewalks since the last big snow.
