Maybe the warm fall lulled us into thinking it would never come. Or maybe we are clinging to the hope that November will be a pleasant month. But every year, the first big winter storm of the year seems to hit us in the face like a cold dead fish.
And every year, the first big snowfall seems to put a strain on snow clearing budgets across the province. Nowhere is that more true than in St. Albert, a city that has always prided itself on the smoothness of its winter streets.
This year appears to be no different. The numbers have not yet been crunched on the cost of last week’s snowfall, but the city has already announced that it has added $300,000 from a contingency fund to 2014’s $3.1 million snow clearing budget. If this seems like a surprise, it shouldn’t be. The city, whose fiscal year begins Jan. 1, has done the same thing in two of the past three years.
If there is a big concern for council, it should be on the growing perception that snow clearing in our big neighbour to the south has caught up to, and perhaps, surpassed our homegrown efforts. Along with residents we’ve interviewed who appear reasonably happy with St. Albert’s streets this week, several others have contacted the Gazette to complain that the city should pick up the pace a bit in this department.
And so the annual debate will continue.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
