The Town of The Blue Mountains is getting into the business of clearing snow from local sidewalks.
At its meeting on Jan. 29, council unanimously approved a plan to bring the sidewalk snow clearing in-house as a full municipal operation. A previous plan to push the decision to the 2025 budget process lasted just over two weeks.
On Jan. 10 at its committee of the whole budget meeting, council had voted to delay an ultimate decision on the matter until the 2025 budget. At that time, council was facing the choice of bringing the service in-house as a full municipal operation and then expanding the service across the town or ending sidewalk snow clearing altogether.
Currently, the town has a private contractor providing the service in Thornbury and Clarksburg. The town’s contractor has told municipal staff that the winter of 2023/24 will be the last year they will provide the service. On Jan. 10, council voted to have staff approach the contractor about extending the service for another year.
At the Jan. 29 meeting staff reported that the contractor was not interested in continuing.
“They are not looking to provide service beyond April 2024,” said Jim McCannell, manager of roads and drainage.
This information left council staring at just two possibilities: no more sidewalk snow clearing anywhere in town starting in November 2024 or moving ahead and purchasing sidewalk snow clearing machines and hiring the staff to bring the service in-house.
A report from McCannell recommended that staff be given pre-approval to purchase the machines required to start providing the service in November. The town needs to order the machines as soon as possible in order to have them delivered by November.
The plan would be for the town to continue providing sidewalk clearing in Thornbury and Clarksburg during the winter of 2024/25. Council may consider possible expansions of the program to other areas of the town in future budgets.
While sidewalk snow clearing is not a required service, no member of council raised the possibility of discontinuing the service in April. This left council with no other choice but to agree to the staff recommendation to purchase the equipment and begin the process to hire staff.
The decision comes with a cost. The two clearing machines required will cost approximately $475,000. The additional operating costs (the total costs minus the existing money in the operating budget for the contractor-provided service) for the service will be $132,750 spread over 2024 and 2025 - $53,100 for 2024 and $79,650 in 2025 (2025 is higher because the town will be providing the service for all winter months in 2025).
Sam Dinsmore, acting finance director/treasurer recommended the $53,100 in new operating costs in 2024 be added to the tax levy. He said a source of financing will have to be identified for the capital purchases of the snow clearing machines.
“There really is no funding for it right now,” he said.
Options include: long-term debt, proceeds from possible future land sales or reserves.
Council approved the staff report in a 6-0 vote, with Coun. Alex Maxwell absent.
