Town of Olds chief administrative officer Michael Merritt wants to meet with representatives of Uptowne this week after an angry delegation voiced concerns to councillors on Monday, Dec. 17 about snow removal.
Ten Uptowne reps attended council’s policies and priorities meeting to express their frustration after it took weeks to clear streets in the area in the wake of a Dec. 1-2 snowfall.
Supporters filled two-thirds of the available seats in the gallery, not including some town staff who were there as well.
They were upset that streets weren’t cleared for two or three days while places like the Sportsplex and the swimming pool parking lot were cleared right away.
Uptowne businessman Drew Marceton of Nulook Hair Salon said lots of customers got stuck in the snow because it wasn’t cleared in the first couple of days of that week.
“It really does impact business,” Marceton said, adding, “I don’t know how many times we’ve had a garbage truck stuck.”
April Jemieff of Suzanne’s & Jenny’s voiced similar concern.
“I have a lot of older people coming to my shop and they’re not able to get in,” she said.
Lawyer Terry Cody said snow clearing in Uptowne is not an issue that can wait.
“It’s not proper to put this issue off until spring or summer,” he said. “It’s not good for the town, it’s not good for business and it’s unprecedented.”
Director of operations Scott Chant acknowledged that town workers didn’t begin clearing Uptowne streets within 24 hours of the snowfall. However, he said initially, the forecast was for flurries, not a major dump of snow.
“We only have one grader, we contracted a second grader in,” Chant said. “It did take two mornings to get it done, but work can only be done until the traffic volumes increase.”
He also said there are move more than 105 kilometres of streets in the community, so snow clearing priorities have to be set.
“We have addressed the issue of timing with our staff,” he added.
“I think there was plenty of opportunity to get in front of this,” said Coun. Wade Bearchell who chaired the meeting. “Talk is cheap when people are stuck.”
With files from Ty Rothermal and Murray Elliott
