Snow Angels receive funding for next winter

Story Highlights

• Windsor city council has approved $25,000 in funding for the Snow Angels Volunteer Snow Removal Program following the snowiest winter on record.

by Justin Prince

The city’s Snow Angels won’t be melting away after all.

Windsor city council has approved $25,000 in funding for the Snow Angels Volunteer Snow Removal Program following the snowiest winter on record.
The program helps assist any residents who are over the age of 65 or have a disability by shoveling their driveways and sidewalks. According to program coordinator Katherine Mersch, the Snow Angels need the funding as soon as possible. She said the program will use the funds to start its volunteer process this September, which includes registering and screening volunteers. The funding will be coming from the Public Works Operations Department budget.

City Engineer Mario Sonego said council told him to try and find other organizations to fund the program.

“We looked at various organizations and they don’t want to do it because of the complexities of the situation,” said Sonego. “It became apparent only the city can do it.”

According to Sonego, the program saw an increase in demand for both volunteers and people who needed assistance this winter. The program currently has 98 volunteers who help 189 people. Statistics Canada’s 2011 National Census reveals those 189 people only account for less than one per cent of the city’s 65 and older demographic. Presently, there are more than 33,000 people in Windsor who are part of the age group.

Sonego also said there were a few times this winter when where there weren’t enough volunteers available to help people who called for assistance. According to the Windsor Municipal Code, all citizens are required to remove any snow or ice in front of, beside or behind their property within 12 hours of a storm ending.

“If we can double our volunteers, that’d be great,” said Sonego. “We increased (our volunteer roster) by over 30 per cent … since December. We’re hoping for a much better result (next year.)”

During the meeting, Mayor Eddie Francis announced the winners of the Snow Angels raffle draw. Francis gave prizes to two families in attendance. The top prize was an iPad Air. And other prizes included season passes for the Adventure Bay water park and Tim Horton’s gift cards. There were also three people who won prizes who were not in attendance.

“We think it’s a great program,” said Peter Burke, whose family volunteered with the Snow Angels last winter. “We’d love to participate in it this year as well.”

The funding will also be reserved for Windsor’s 2015 annual budget.