Councillor Barry Hicks

Several members of Tantramar Town Council expressed concern about the timely removal of snowbanks in downtown Sackville on Monday during a 20-minute discussion of public works standards for clearing snow and ice.

Council members were responding to Town Engineer Jon Eppell who said curb side snowbanks more than 18 inches high are removed about 72 hours or three days after a storm has ended.

Councillor Barry Hicks, Sackville’s former superintendent of public works, suggested snowbanks should be removed long before they reach that height.

“Passengers cannot get the door open or exit the vehicle with an 18-inch snowbank and when you add in the six-inch rise of the curb, it brings it to 24-inches,” he said.

“It is impossible for persons with mobility issues, senior citizens, parents with babies or small children to exit their vehicles in the downtown core with snowbanks that high,” Hicks said, adding that people are forced to walk into traffic to get to a pathway cleared by a downtown business.

“This is a safety issue for everyone,” he said.

Age friendly

Councillor Bruce Phinney

Councillor Bruce Phinney agreed, suggesting that snow-clearing standards have changed over the years.

“There has not been a direction to change anything,” Eppell responded. “I’m not aware that this is different from what used to be done.”

“Well, it seems that things are not getting done very fast then,” Phinney said, adding that he cleared snow at Mount Allison University for almost 40 years.

He said he now has a problem getting over snowbanks in downtown Sackville.

“And, if we’re an age-friendly community, we need to put in place what’s needed for the seniors,” he said.

‘High standard’

Mayor Andrew Black said that during his 10 years on council, snow removal has been a recurring concern.

“Every single year we have complaints about how the snow is removed or not removed,” he said, adding that some winters are worse than others.

“I would also say that when you have such a high standard of snow removal, like I believe we do in Tantramar, any slight slip makes it look like it’s highly catastrophic,” Black said.

“I do want to highlight that we are pretty fortunate with the snow removal that we do have here.”

Councillor Josh Goguen

Councillor Josh Goguen said he also agreed with Councillor Hicks because of his experience picking up his spouse who works downtown.

“She’s fallen quite a few times trying to get over the snowbanks or I’ve had to pull out and try to get to one of the clearings so she could get in.”

Councillor Michael Tower said children sometimes have a hard time getting to school because of high snowbanks, but said later he gets a lot of comments from people who are happy that the main roads are plowed before they go to work.

“So you have to take the good with the bad and we get an awful lot of good,” he said.

To read Town Engineer Jon Eppell’s written presentation to council on snow and ice clearing standards, click here.

For information on the latest proposal to get an age-friendly community designation for Tantramar from the province, click here.