We were warned over the past few days that it would snow last night. It did! As I look out it is still snowing lightly and there is about 6 inches of the stuff on the grass and sidewalk. Where we live there is a 4 lane divided road on a hill. The traffic is lined up as far as one can see looking north. These are the people that want to turn east at 34th avenue.
The city has finally decided that they need to do something about snow removal, and so they have allocated an additional 10 million to the budget which should help. For the first time the city will also be plowing the snow on residential streets when it accumulates over an inch. How novel an idea is that!
Keep in mind that we are a city of 1.1 million, and have relied on the famous "Chinook Wind" to do our snow management for us. It hasn't worked. Streets are icy and rutted, some blocked entirely when we get a good wind with the snow. The snow budget on an annual basis has been under budgeted for years. This additional money put in this year will be a big help. It still amounts to only about $10.00 a person in increased spending or tax as the case may be.
Our condo complex is not plowed by the city, but is handled by a private company to whom we pay a good fee every year for snow management. I have been the "Snowman", a committee of one that has overseen this activity for the past few years but this year I passed the spear to another villa resident to look after. Tom will have his work cut out for him, since our snow plow company always misses some areas and have to be called back. This means that one has to put on the winter stuff and go out and see all the little out of the way places that were missed. Sometimes the snow is piled on an inappropriate place resulting a similar callback. As winter goes by and the snow accumulates, the snow left on some driveways gets to be a problem and again this results in a phone call or an email with pictures going out to the provider.
Ah the joys of condo living in the winter.
Cheerio, and I hope your day is snow free!
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