Windsor plowing through snow removal budget

By Daelyn Davis

The City of Windsor is doing whatever it takes to keep the streets plowed, even if it means extending a $4 million budget, according the city Operations Manager, Dwayne Dawson.

In the winter of 2018 the city received a substantial 30 cm of snow within a span of just a few days. Due to the snowfall, the City of Windsor had plowed through $2 million of the snow budget. Eventually, the budget was exceeded by $325,000. City council wants to make a change for the 2019 snow removal budget by raising it to approximately  $4.4 million.

Dawson says that snow plowing is done by an outside contractor hired by the City of Windsor, which is what makes it more expensive. A guaranteed amount of money is paid up front to ensure the city has snow trucks available whether it snows or not. Whenever snowfall reaches four inches the snow trucks must plow residential streets, which can cost up to $250,000. This cost plays a big part in the snow removal budget.

Andrew Locke is a Windsor resident who lives near Windsor Crossing Outlet mall and said there are goods and bads in the snow plowing services.

“I think that the services are good on main roads, like when there is a blizzard out there are lots of plows and it keeps the roads safer,” said Locke. “But it took a couple days to get to our area and when they do get here they always plow in your cars parked on the side of the roads and plow your driveway in, and you have to re-shovel it yourself.”

Locke would like to see a few improvements in the snow removal service, but it is nothing Dawson is not already working on to keep the citizens safe and happy.

“Some things I would like to enhance in clearing the snow removal is clearing the sidewalks, clearing up alleys, reducing the threshold for residential snow clearing down to three inches and clear driveways,” said Dawson. “Those are all ideas that have been detailed, explained and estimated for the council to deliberate in the 2019 budget.”

The City of Windsor is doing whatever it takes to keep the streets safe even if it means scraping up money outside of their budget.