Trail’s public works director is asking residents for patience as crews try to get a handle on the ongoing dumps of snow that have blanketed the city this week.
“It’s definitely been challenging,” Chris McIsaac says. “We have some pretty tight areas of the city. When you start moving this much snow to the side, it makes for difficult conditions for both plow operators and residents. But we’re doing what we can to keep up.”
McIsaac says they were already struggling to deal with Monday’s storm, trying to clear some areas and widen roadways a bit before another snow blast hit today, expected to bring a similar amount.
“We’re concentrating on keeping roads open. We’ll push it all to the sides and work to haul it all away tomorrow through the weekend and next week.”
Crews started around 3 a.m. today and worked on emergency and bus routes until 7:30 when the full fleet began to work on the entire city.
Unlike several neighbouring communities, Trail has been able to provide curbside garbage and recycling pick-up despite all of the snow.
“Kudos to [contractor] GFL Environmental for getting out there in very tough conditions, particularly up in the west side,” McIsaac says. “They’re used to driving in those confined areas so they have some smaller equipment, but it was pretty tight. Good on them, otherwise things would be piling up.”
He asks residents to be “patient with the snow crews. We’re out there doing the best we can. We know it’s backbreaking work for residents when we put those windrows at the end of driveways, but there’s not much else we can do.”