Have you been complaining about the city’s slow plowing pace this winter? You’ve got company on council.
Last week, Purcell’s Cove-Armdale Coun. Linda Mosher got a call from a resident: An ambulance had a tough time getting to an ailing 71-year-old woman because the road wasn’t plowed.
“The paramedics had to walk up a steep hill with a stretcher to get the lady to the ambulance which delayed her getting to the hospital,” Mosher said in an interview yesterday.
“Then after the lady was released from the hospital and able to go home … they had to park the car on a neighbouring street and cut through a neighbour’s backyard and up a hill to get her into the house.”
At tomorrow’s council meeting, Mosher is going to ask for options to tighten up the snow removal standards for next year.
Priority 1 streets are plowed within 12 hours, but Priority 2 roads are done within 24 hours.
That’s manageable if the snowstorms are spaced out, but this winter they’ve been piling up, leaving crews with barely enough time to catch their breath.
“You can’t pretend it isn’t going to happen,” she said. “We have winter, whether you like it or not, we have it every year and we have to put a realistic amount in the budget. If we don’t utilize all that funding, then we should have that funding in a reserve to be used the next year.”
It’s not just snowy streets, either. Mosher said residents in her district are complaining that sidewalks in front of HRM-owned buildings and parks are not cleared.
