With the ravages of winter quickly melting and the advent of spring on the not-so-distant horizon, the city’s snow removal budget remains in tact.
At least for now.
The monetary good news comes in spite of the last two recent powdery offerings by old man winter.
Prior to that public works manager Len Robson of the City of Penticton estimated the main part of the annual $260,000 snow removal budget used to date was about half, or around $130,000.
“It was going fantastic (earlier in the season including November and December) but we knew it was coming sooner or later,” said Robson about the late snowy onslaught. “If it stopped right now things would be perfect, typically what happens is this time of year we’ll go through a little bit more of the budget and then of course the budget will carry on and have to sustain November and December.
“In an average snow storm we can go through a lot of money in a big hurry.”
This particular portion of the budget relates to buying salt and sand, clearing roads, hand shovellers, anti-icing work and wages, regular and overtime.
Other work that includes clearing efforts in parking lots and trails comes under a different budget heading.
Related: Wintry weather rolls into the Okanagan valley
Robson added that typically snow control is consistent, averaging out over time but then there are years like 2018 which had a big start to the year resulting in the department going slightly over budget.
There is also a contingency fund for cases like that.
Related: Penticton snow removal crews busy with first major snowfall
Concerns raised in recent years in eastern provinces such as Ontario about the negative impact of salt from roads going into lakes and rivers is something Robson is well aware of.
“Simply put it’s (salt) a chemical that’s not great for our environment,” he said. “So back east they use a lot more salt, a lot more, we use it pretty sparingly.”
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Mark Brett | Reporter
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