When a snow plow went out of service during this weekend’s snow storm, some residents felt stranded.
Cathy Howell was upset when she woke up Monday morning to find the area of Cedar Island Road and Davey Drive hadn’t been plowed since the snow started falling Saturday.
Cedar Island Road is the only way to get in and out of the area.
“If we can’t get out of here on that one route, how the hell is an ambulance going to get in if there’s an emergency?” Howell said. “There’s a lot of disabled people down here and they need to be able to get their scooters out onto the road to get where they need to go.”
The plow arrived shortly before 11 a.m. Monday. Usually, the area is plowed early in the morning, said Peter Ercolini, the city’s superintendent of roads and fleet. However, one of the vehicles — among the city’s fleet of nine — had mechanical problems and was taken off the road.
Also, it appears the plow driver reversed the route for that area Monday morning, he said, noting drivers “usually start at Colborne Street and work their way south.”
He acknowledged the roads in the area were plowed “a little bit later than normal” after 25 cm of snow fell in town.
Howell is hardly the first to contact Ercolini to express frustration when plows aren’t on the road first thing in the morning. Sometimes it’s a mechanical problem, and sometimes drivers don’t make it easy for city crews to get the job done, he said.
“Once day breaks, it can be hard to get down some of these streets.”
Parking on city streets overnight is prohibited during the winter, but Ercolini urges residents to also be mindful of plowing operations during the day and, if possible, not park on the street when it is snowing.
The priority, he said, is always arterial and collector roads, which can sometimes make other residents feel like they’ve been forgotten.
That’s how Howell feels during most snow storms, she said.
“It used to be different when (Don) Jenkins was in there,” she said of the late city councillor, who lived down the street from her.