City of Kamloops snow-clearing budget drained

Dec 30, 2015 | 2:08 PM

KAMLOOPS — A City of Kamloops snow-clearing budget that looked healthy last week has been blown out of the water by this week’s barrage of the white stuff.

Streets and Environmental Services Manager Glen Farrow says contractors have been hired and plenty of overtime is being accrued to clean up the latest snowfall.

Meantime, Farrow adds the flood of phone calls from impatient homeowners is getting a little old.

He notes the city received upwards of 100 calls in the thick of the snowfall from people wondering why their residential side streets had not yet been cleared.

“Our priorities clearly state what our focus is with arterial and collector roads, and then bus routes,” said Farrow. “The reality is, in an event like this, we’re not going to be seeing local roads until, in a lot of cases, at least a day or two after the event stops.”

“Our service level targets 36 hours after the stop of the event.”

Farrow says side streets should be clear by today, and more work will be needed to truck snow away from the downtown core overnight.