Some councillors want La Ronge Avenue cleared of snow before businesses open in the mornings. (Derek Cornet/larongeNOW Staff)

By Derek Cornet

winter weather

La Ronge council leaning toward earlier start times for snow removal employees

Nov 9, 2022 | 4:28 PM

La Ronge town council members would like to see snow removal begin as early as 3 or 4 a.m.

At a regular meeting on Tuesday, council went over revisions made to the Snow and Ice Response Policy and were asked for recommendations before it comes back to council for finalization later this month.

While councillors did have individual ideas for improvements, at least three were in favour of earlier start times for snow removal employees when there are large snowfalls.

“Why are we clearing snow during the day when the downtown is busy?” Coun. Ryan Veteri asked. “You look at other municipalities how they are run, they do their clearing at 3 a.m. in the morning. They are doing it that way. I think more would get done.”

Veteri mentioned it would be ideal if employees started earlier and had several hours of work in before businesses open along La Ronge Avenue. He noted after that work is done, crews could go back to regular hours and complete residential areas while people are at work.

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Coun. Matthew Klassen agreed with Veteri.

“It would sure be nice if we could at least have downtown or the main arteries cleared before all the businesses open downtown, because it is going to cause an accident at some point when equipment is moving snow around and trucks are downtown loading snow up when people are trying to utilize all of the amenities downtown,” he said.

Deputy-mayor Viviana Ruiz-Arcand also agreed. She thinks it would be a good idea if snow removal employees worked 4 a.m. to noon, and if there were a second shift that followed the first one.

“It is supposed to be a really heavy snowfall this winter is what the prediction is in terms of what all the indicators are saying,” Ruiz-Arcand said. “It is hard for people trying to get to work in the morning or even youth trying to get to school getting stuck.”

Administration will get back to council with further revisions to the policy at the Nov. 22 regular council meeting. Council also asked administration to determine the cost of snow removal in 2021-22.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno