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Winter weather slams city budget

All of the white stuff has the city's books seeing red. The winter roads budget for the city is $700,000 over budget so far and looks to be about $1.3 million by the end of the year.

All of the white stuff has the city's books seeing red.

The winter roads budget for the city is $700,000 over budget so far and looks to be about $1.3 million by the end of the year.

Spring storms and early winter blasts have kept workers busy on the roads this year. Roads division manager Brad Adams said every time all of the plows come out, it costs up to $20,000 a night to get the roads and sidewalks safe.

If residential streets need to be plowed, that number climbs to about $25,000. The money is needed for labour, equipment and material.

"It all depends on the weather events out there," he said.

The city does have a $2.2 million winter control reserve fund, which Adams said hasn't been needed yet.

But they'll have a better idea of where the budget ended up around February. The city's standards have plows on arterial and collector roads when hit at least five centimetres of snow. All streets are plowed once it gets to about ten centimetres.

"We hold to that standard," Adams said.

City crews were out Monday to sand and plow some streets with hills to make them safer. But the heavy plowing was done starting at around 2 a.m.

That's a typical response, Adams said.

Plowing late at night and into the early morning means less traffic on the road, which is safer for everyone he said.





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