When it comes to dealing with excessive amounts of snow, it seems there are no good choices. Slave Lake town council chose the one they thought least bad at its Jan. 22 meeting.
Here’s what to expect, should we get another heavy snowfall. The snowplows will push the snow from the street onto the side they’ve been leaving clear until now. This contravenes the normal policy of piling the snow on one side only and leaving one side free.
According to the town’s operations boss Roger Borchert, there’s so much snow that there’s no more room on the designated side. If we don’t pile snow on the other side, he said, the only options are to ignore it altogether or to truck it out of town. Trucking it would cost over $100,000 Borchert said, for which there is no budget.
Ignoring snow buildup on the streets isn’t a good option either, and council was not prepared to entertain it.
Councillor Rob Chalmers observed that if the snowpack is too deep, when it starts melting it can cause big problems, with school buses and other vehicles getting stuck.
“If we don’t do this now it could come back and bite us in the butt,” he said.
Borchert’s proposal was nevertheless to waive the 10 centimetre limit for snowpack on the road surface, to allow for a bit more flexibility. He further proposed that with the next major snowfall, town crews would pile the snow on the ‘other’ side of the road.
This practice could have implications for pedestrians, and a couple of councillors were not prepared to give permission for the town to bury sidewalks on both sides of the street.
“I’m not willing to put pedestrians at risk any further,” said councillor Rob Irwin. “I’d err on the side of putting motorists at an inconvenience.”
Borchert clarified his proposal. He said the plan is not to bury the currently open sidewalk (although he noted that in many cases it isn’t open because residents don’t shovel it), but to pile the snow beyond it on people’s front yards, the first few feet of which they don’t actually own. Some of that snow will inevitably spill onto the sidewalk, he admitted, but said plow operators would endeavour to keep the sidewalk clear for pedestrians.
“It will work only if people don’t park on the sidewalk,” he said.
On that condition, Borchert won the support of the majority of council, which approved the departure from policy for this winter only.
Borchert also noted that if snowfalls continue to be heavy, even this solution wouldn’t be enough. In which case, he said, “I’ll be coming back to ask about parking on one side only.”
Councillor Elaine Carmichael had the last word.
“Council should be aware we’re going to get phone calls,” she said.

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