The City of Grande Prairie has initiated a two-week residential snow-clearing rotation, despite officials insisting the 13-centimetre threshold has not been reached.
Residential clearing will begin in the Week A neighbourhoods of Avondale, College Park, and Swanavon, before continuing on the usual Week A, Week B cycle. The city maintains the rotation will be completed in full before residential snow clearing ends, and if more clearing is needed, the city will react accordingly.
Grande Prairie Mayor Jackie Clayton explains the need to initiate a clearing right now stems from a variety of factors, including complaints from residents, and the desire to take advantage of the swan city’s recent thaw.
“This has been a unique winter, there’s been a lot of freeze and thaw, council has been hearing on a regular basis about residential, primarily,” she says. “We are hearing residential subdivisions and residents of our community saying it’s really hard to get through certain residences, the freeze and thaw, some have soft snow, some have frozen snow, there are mobility issues which lead potentially to safety issues, so residential areas in our community have been the number one area that council has been hearing from.”
The warm weather is a significant driver as well. As the Mayor indicates, the city hopes that a clear, while the snow is already half melted, will help mitigate any issues on the roads once the weather freezes up again.
“There hasn’t been enough accumulation of snow over a period of time to trigger a residential, council said that doesn’t matter, we want the snow removed, so council directed administration to initiate another round of snow removal,” she says. “It’s not about necessarily removing all the windrows or all the cul-du-sac piles, but it’s about getting the snow off the roads while we’re in this sort of warm-up period.”
Clayton adds that removing snow is “the best way” the city has to mitigate any concerns surrounding flooding when the warm weather becomes a bit more permanent.
During residential snow clearing, no-parking signs will be posted in the areas scheduled for clearing, and residents are asked to remove their vehicles from the street before clearing begins.
