THUNDER BAY -- City Council meets this evening to decide whether to commit additional money to the city's roads budget, along with some service cuts, in order to meet rising winter maintenance costs.
According to a report from city staff, the annual Winter Operation budget has been in the red since 2011, and is expected to fall more than $2.2-million short of expenses by the end of this year.
The report also recommends that the city spend $100,000 on computerized route optimization software to improve efficiency, and that the city switch to a 'sand-only' policy on more than 1,100 kilometres of residential streets, except near hills and curves in the road.
Currently, a mix of salt and sand is applied to those roads.
Other cost-saving measures up for consideration, but not yet recommended at this time, include plowing residential streets only after 15-centimetres of snow accumulation, rather than the current 10-centimetres.
And they suggest increasing expected snow-plow times from 72 to 96 hours after a snowfall in residential areas.
