If you think all the snow we’ve gotten lately is frustrating, imagine being one of the people whose job it is to clear it off the streets and remove it to the snow dumps.
We spoke to City of Timmins public works manager Ken Krcel early Tuesday afternoon.
“I guess for the most part, it put us back to Square 1 where all the streets are now full of snow,” is his appraisal.
Krcel gets snow depth data regularly from the natural resources ministry and the Mattagami Region Conservation Authority. It has been trending towards the most snow in the last ten years.
“We’re currently at the second most amount of snow in the last ten years at this point in time,” he says, “but those readings were done before yesterday’s (Monday’s) snowfall.”
The public works department is facing a lot of challenges, cleaning streets and hauling away snow before the next storm, expected overnight Thursday.
Krcel says he knows everyone is frustrated, but he’s asking that you not block sidewalks or dump the snow from your driveway onto the street.
“It doesn’t help anybody when they pile all the snow at the end of their driveway,” he comments. “It just makes the roads narrower and puts the travelling public at risk. I know we’ve all got to sort of work together to make the streets and sidewalks as safe as possible for our community.”
Krcel also asks for patience. He says his crews have already put in a lot of overtime, with more snow and more overtime to come.