icy sidewalk


Spring may be right around the corner but Weyburn City Council is already looking ahead to next year.

A proposal was brought to Council last night suggesting an adaptation of an age-friendly Residential Sidewalk Clearing program.

"What it was really suggesting was that we implement a program and maybe the City provide a snowblower or some incentive for neighbours to help neighbours or that type of a thing for snow clearing throughout the winter," said Mayor Debra Button. "The reason it took a little bit of a different angle was due to the fact that, quite frankly, we hear from these residents repeatedly and a lot of what they do tell us is the City is breaking it's own bylaw by piling the snow onto the sidewalks."

Discussion in council led to a number of suggestions including keeping snow removal the way it is, begin removing all snow in residential areas or stop clearing residential streets to keep the sidewalks clear, keeping in mind that some neighbourhoods do not have boulevards in which to pile snow.

"Part of the discussion tonight was around what would it cost to remove all of the snow every time we have a snowfall where we have our equipment on the streets," stated Button.

Currently, it costs approximately $9,200 to clear snow from downtown Weyburn and it is done four times a year on average. To remove all snow from residential streets four times would cost an extra $650,000 and would require a 10 percent increase to City taxes.

To help make this decision, council has decided to launch a poll on the city website. 

"What we are asking tonight is please, give us your feedback," said Button. "Maybe the residents of Weyburn would like to see us heading into the residential streets and removing all of the snow."

Regardless of the outcome, Mayor Button firmly believes that Weyburn has the best snow removal in the province.