WESTLOCK – The winter that doesn’t want to end is keeping two Town of Westlock departments extremely busy, with the community peace officer handing out nearly 30 tickets related to snow removal last month, while public works was forced to park a broken-down grader on 107th Street until parts arrived.
At their March 14 meeting, Town of Westlock councillors heard reports from development services director Krystle Fedoretz, who oversees the enforcement department, and operations director Robin Benoit, that the municipality’s snow removal efforts, now into a fifth month, are keeping staff swamped.
Benoit said they continue to deal with a lot of snow and ice, which has led to several equipment breakdowns, including the grader that was parked on 107th Street all last week. In his report Benoit says rain in January and February caused a thick sheet of ice to form, harden and then bond to roads and sidewalks making it “very challenging to remove … through conventional means taking care not to damage the road surface and sidewalks.”
“No, that’s not a new parking stall for the grader on 107th. The fuel pump failed and it’s a 60,000-pound piece of equipment that cannot be moved when it’s not operating — the wheels lock and the parking brake goes on,” Benoit told council. “Finning scoured North American and found us a fuel pump and it should be here by Friday and then back up and running after.”
As well, the tractor that propels the snow blower is still down and repairs are taking longer than anticipated as parts have been hard to find — in the interim the town is using a replacement.
Meanwhile, the snow gate on the grader moldboard is out of service and while they are still able to get parts to repair it, Benoit says it’s showing its age “with metal fatigue” and will need to be scheduled for replacement next winter.
With temps now warming Benoit reports they’re seeing potholes emerge and are filling them as they go. Crews have also been out thawing frozen catch basins, storm lines and cleaning ditches to ready the system for spring melt.
“However, more than usual effort has been required likely due to freezing rains and multiple freeze thaw cycles,” he wrote in his report.
In February, the town’s peace officer handed out 28 tickets under the snow removal and traffic bylaws directly related to snow removal, while Benoit said he jokingly asked peace officer Randy Burgess to give, “Old Man Winter a loitering fine.” In total, enforcement handled 49 files last month, which Fedoretz says is busier than normal.
“Hands down the largest majority that was done in February was in relation to snow removal. And when you look at even the traffic things, those numbers were in relation to snow removal,” said Fedoretz. “To quantify the enforcement services report, a busy enforcement month is generally 30 to 35 files.”
