Despite the fact this has been one of the longest, coldest and nastiest winters in recent memory in Osoyoos and across large swaths of B.C., it hasn’t adversely affected the Town’s snow removal budget, says Jim Dinwoodie, director of operational services. That could change if more heavy snowfall returns next December, he said. (Richard McGuire file photo)
Even though this has been one of the longest, coldest and harshest winters here in Osoyoos in many years, local taxpayers will be pleased to know there won’t be any financial ramifications to local taxpayers.
“We’re still within budget,” said Jim Dinwoodie, the Town’s director of operational services.
The Town’s annual budget for snow removal is approximately $41,000, with $10,000 earmarked to purchase materials like sand, snow and new blades for trucks used during snow removal operations and another $31,000 to pay for wages and benefits of Town employees involved in snow removal operations, said Dinwoodie.
From talking to longtime operational services personnel, the winter of 2016-17 was certainly one of the longest and coldest in the last two decades in Osoyoos, said Dinwoodie.
With no more snow expected as the calendar turns to March this week, Dinwoodie said the snow removal budget for 2017 – which runs from January through to December – could go over budget if there is a significant amount of snow this coming November and December.
“We certainly had a longer and busier winter than we normally do here in Osoyoos, but we’re still within budget as of the end of January,” he said. “We will have to see what happens in December to see if we remain within our snow removal budget for the entire year.”
Because of the unseasonably cold winter weather and larger than normal snowfall in December, January and February, Dinwoodie said the Town did have to purchase 20 per cent more salt and sand than it normally does over the course of the winter.
“But unlike what happened in Vancouver, we were able to easily access the extra salt and sand that we needed,” he said. “I guess we’re a little more civilized here in Osoyoos because we didn’t have the difficulties they experienced in Vancouver with people fighting over access to salt and sand.”
There are provisions in the snow removal budget to remove the snow from downtown parking stalls to an assigned snow dump area at least twice each winter, but that large-scale snow removal operation was only conducted once this past winter, said Dinwoodie.
“We did remove all of the snow from the downtown core just once,” he said. “That’s an expensive operation as it costs an additional $3,000 to $4,000 every time we do it, but we do put money aside in the budget for two of these operations and we only had to do it once this winter, despite the larger than normal accumulation of snow.”
The Town owns three trucks that are involved in snow removal and another three tractors and gators used to clean sidewalks and parking lots and all were used extensively during every snowfall event throughout the long winter, he said.
With the onset of warmer spring-like weather over the past couple of weeks, Town crews had already started annual spring cleanup efforts that includes sweeping up all of the sand that was laid down to clear roads over the winter, he said.
“When you lay down the amount of sand that we had to this winter, you eventually have to pick it all up,” he said.
The return of snowfall overnight Tuesday shouldn’t negatively effect spring cleaning efforts as there wasn’t significant accumulation and warmer weather melted most of the snow that did fall in Osoyoos by early afternoon., he said.
The Town’s only street sweeper was in need of numerous new parts and those have been installed and the machine is in good shape and ready to clean streets across the Town over the next couple of weeks, he said.
“We’ve swept and cleaned up a large number of streets, but if the street sweeper hasn’t been on your street yet, it is coming very soon,” he said.
His department is blessed to have a strong contingent of skilled, dedicated and hard-working employees and they have all earned their paycheques over the past three months dealing with Mother Nature this winter, he said.
“We have a group of workers with the Town who take great pride in what they do,” he said. “I give all the credit to our work crews because they’re the ones sitting inside those frozen cabs moving snow during blinding snowstorms. They’ve done a great job all winter.”
Dinwoodie said he and Town crews are hopeful more traditional winter weather will return next winter because it has been a long grind the past three months.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
