Councillor calls for quicker response for snowed-in neighbourhoods

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The December snowfall put the city in a bind because council had already gone on holiday break by the time the storm arrived, with no meetings until mid-January.

Davison said the city’s snow and ice control policy should be updated so Calgarians aren’t snowed in even longer over an administrative process.

“We all recognize that we get crazy amounts of snowfall periodically,” he said. “If we can react better and we can provide better service, those are the things that we want to continually look at.”

The Ward 6 councillor said he’s heard from plenty of his own constituents about their issues getting in and out of their homes, but he knows there were problems across the city.

“I live on the corner, so people were constantly getting stuck in front of my house.”

City roads spokesman Chris McGeachy said there have been more than 1,800 service requests to 311 related to snow on roadways over the past week, and thousands were logged in the final week of December as well.

He said crews are still working on clearing the way for drivers on residential roads.

“If the road is passable, they’re not going to risk creating more windrows by flat blading,” he said. “But if there are deep ruts, they’re going to try to pack that snow down and work to make the condition in the driving lane more passable.”

City crews don’t haul away snow from residential roads.

Coun. George Chahal said he’s still hearing about ongoing problems in his Ward 5.

“One cul-de-sac I was in, the neighbours had piled up snow in the middle and made a little roundabout,” he said. “It’s good, neighbours helping neighbours . . . but there needs to be a further review of our snow-clearing policy and potentially even further investment looked at.”

He said people shouldn’t be unable to make it out of their neighbourhood to go to the grocery store for days at a time.

“This was a citywide issue from north to south to east to west,” he said.

Council’s priorities and finance committee will look at Davison’s motion on Tuesday. If it gets initial approval, council will debate and vote at a meeting later this month.

masmith@postmedia.com

Twitter: @meksmith