January is again upon us and we are left with the inescapable reality of several more months of cold and what seems like neverending snow.
Although we’ve been lucky with some warm temperatures, the first week of 2019 ended with another weekend dump.
And of course all that snow needs to be moved — whether from a sidewalk, driveway, or from our streets and area highways.
Complaints about the time it takes to clear the white stuff from the streets are as common as icicles this time of year … you could almost call it a national pastime.
Maybe it’s because we live in social-media world where everything happens instantly that we want everything to be done 15 minutes ago.
But folks let’s keep this in perspective.
If you live in a city like Edmonton, or even St. Albert, residential neighbourhoods are pretty much on their own … and don’t even think about getting your alley cleared as they’re far too busy trying to keep the main roadways clear for tens of thousands of daily commuters.
By comparison, the fact that all of the Town of Westlock’s residential streets get cleared, eventually, should be applauded.
We truly receive a Cadillac service.
Certainly plowing in the county can be a bit more convoluted depending on whether you live in a hamlet, or on a farm.
But again it’s worthwhile to keep in mind that the county only has 11 graders at its disposal and over 2,200 kilometres of roads to maintain year round.
Add a little bit of wind to push snow off fields onto roads and graders have their hands full keeping main roads safe.
The obvious solution for those who want quicker snow removal would be to purchase more graders and hire more people to drive them.
But we all know what that means and if there is one thing we all hate more than snow it’s paying more taxes.
So take a deep breath, buy some winter tires and be patient because the snow will get moved, it’s just going to take some time.
