Snow Route System A Success In Niverville

The Head of Operations for the Town of Niverville says snow route parking bans really helping with snow clearing this winter.

Ryan Dyck says there is always some negative feedback when you implement something new but overall the new snow route system was surprisingly well received in Niverville.

"It is our first year with the parking ban in effect on certain days but I think overall that went well. After review though, we will probably expand, there are probably a few more areas in town where we'll probably put into our snow ban list so that if we need to move snow where there are cars normally parked that we will be able to do so with the least amount of disturbance to the residents." 

Niverville Mayor Myron Dyck says council will bring the snow route system to their annual planning session in November and will possibly discuss tweaks to the system but he expects they will be using it again next winter.

"It certainly helped out public works department and just helped us to be more efficient in ensuring our streets were clean. We pride ourselves in that in Niverville. I know there are a lot of other communities, especially larger centres that maybe aren't quite as efficient as we are so I commend our public works for the great job they do keeping our streets free from snow in the winter."

Operations Manager Ryan Dyck says money for snow clearing operations in Niverville comes out of their overall operating budget. He notes on a year where we get very little snowfall, they put unused funds into a reserve so they have enough money for winters like this.

"Something like this, it is hard to plan for especially the quantity and also the frequency, the amount of money you are spending burning fuel and also wear and tear on equipment and obviously we don't have our own trucks so you are spending money paying for businesses to haul your snow away so we definitely dipped into our reserves this year."