Town officials and representatives of the Uptowne Olds committee met Dec. 21 to discuss snow removal.
The meeting was set up after 10 Uptowne reps came to council's policies and priorities meeting Dec.17 to voice their concerns about snow removal in the wake of a snowstorm Dec. 1 and 2.
Uptowne business people said town staff didn't clear Uptowne streets fast enough so several customers got stuck.
“Their own policy says if there’s seven centimetres of snow it's got to be cleared in 24 hours and, well, that didn’t happen,” said Uptowne chair Leon Durand.
What Durand and the rest of the Uptowne committee hope to get out of their meeting with the town is higher priority for snow removal, although he conceded clearing some other roads must remain a top priority.
“We don’t want to see the hospital for instance not having a road cleared to get to hospital. They’re a priority over Uptowne, but we want to be a higher priority than what we are now and to get it done in a timely manner," he said.
Plans called for Durand and fellow Uptowne reps Murray Elliott, Drew Marceton and Terry Cody, along with Olds & District Chamber of Commerce executive director Caroline Bodmer to meet in the town boardroom with Olds chief administrative officer Michael Merritt as well as director of operations Scott Chant and director of community services Doug Wagstaff.
“We’ll discuss with the town CAO, Scott Chant and Doug Wagstaff in a little more detail, share some ideas and come up with some solutions,” said Durand. “Then they can take it to the next regular town council meeting.”
Durand was happy with how things went during the policies and priorities meeting.
“The fact that the town says that they dropped the ball and that they need to do better was good. They’re willing to listen and have a conversation to see if they can implement better things going forward," Durand said.
"That’s all we really want, you can’t expect everything.”
Durand referenced what Chair Deputy Mayor Wade Bearchell said during the policies and priorities meeting.
"We didn't do our job in a timely fashion; that's why everyone's here," Bearchell said then. "We dropped the ball."
Bearchell also noted that there was plenty of time for the town to get in front of the snowfall.
The Albertan also spoke with Town of Olds CAO Michael Merritt about how he felt the policies and priorities discussion went.
"I think it went very well, I mean we have a process now to see if we can make some adjustments or address some of the concerns," Merritt said.
