Ponoka residents will continue to see a steady snow plowing effort as public works crews try to keep up with an almost daily accumulation of snow in the last month.
Property services director Stan Baliant told council last week crews will tackle the main arteries as needed to keep traffic moving and then work on residential streets as time permits.
“We don’t want to blow the budget with one snowfall,” he explained.
The town was forced to borrow a grader from Ponoka County last week when one of its own was sent to the sidelines with a mechanical failure.
“Our operator is running a county grader,” Baliant said. Town forces are being supplemented by contracted equipment and dump trucks.
Trucks and men tend to slow down a little when it’s -20 degrees C or colder, said CAO Brad Watson.
And it was -31 degrees C at 9 a.m. Jan. 11, Baliant added.
Primary routes have been the town’s priority but it has also been necessary to clear some laneways in neighbourhoods that have alley pickup for garbage and are prone to drifting.
Coun. Doug Gill applauded the work of the public works crews who were on the streets the first weekend of the Jan. 7 to 12 storm and at work before 5 a.m. most days last week.
“When you look at other communities and how they’ve handled the snow, I think your crews have done a very admirable job,” Gill said.
“We’re pretty well confident that if there was an emergency in any part of town a fire truck or ambulance would be able to get through,” Baliant said.