It has been nearly two decades since Grand Bay-Westfield first introduced its snow and ice plan.
Town staff recently proposed several changes and are seeking feedback from the community.
The 46-page document describes the level of service for winter storms on municipal streets.
It uses a priority ranking to determine when roadways will be serviced, how often municipal properties and sidewalks will be serviced, and when salting services will occur.
Bruce Gault, the town’s works commissioner, said one of the biggest proposed changes involves Priority 3 streets, which are typically low-traffic collectors and local streets.
“We’re looking to increase the depth of snow [before plowing] from eight centimetres to 10 centimetres … they probably wouldn’t notice that change,” Gault said in an interview.
“Hopefully that’ll allow some more flexibility on the contractor that he doesn’t have to plow as often.”
Priority 2 streets such as collectors and heavily-travelled local streets are plowed after four to eight centimetres of accumulation, where possible, while Priority 1 streets are plowed after four centimetres of accumulation.
The town is also looking to increase plowing at municipal buildings when they are in use during a storm. Gault said the proposed changes would see the plowing depth reduced to four centimetres from eight centimetres.
In addition, town staff have also clarified that sidewalks “cannot be fully serviced” during the storm event.
“We need to wait until the plow makes its last pass because it’s going to plow the snow and slush back onto the sidewalk, so sidewalks are not going to be an acceptable standard until the last plow has plowed,” said Gault.
Unlike most municipalities in New Brunswick, Grand Bay-Westfield has a contractor that provides most of its snow and ice removal.
Gault said their goal is to have the new service levels defined before the next tender for snow and ice removal services is issued. The current contract expires in April 2023 and the successful contractor would begin in November 2023.
The deadline for feedback is Wednesday, Jan. 19. You can view the draft version of the updated plan and find out where to send feedback on the town’s website.
“We’ll take all of that information and we’ll submit it council so they’ll have that when they look at the plan and can revise as they see fit or not,” said Gault.
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