Late Wednesday morning, we asked Citizen readers on our website and Facebook page for their feedback on the snow removal on city streets over the weekend and through the New Year holiday.
Within a couple of hours, we were overwhelmed with the responses and they reflected what we had already been hearing from staff and delivery drivers - great job in some parts of the city, terrible job in other parts.
A common theme that came from both the positive and negative reviews was a criticism that city crews were clearing Priority 2 and Priority 3 streets before completing or - in some cases - starting work on Priority 1 streets.
The Citizen has filed an information request with the city for a breakdown of where the snow removal crews worked - both city and contractors - between noon Friday and 9 a.m. Wednesday morning in order to see if the city's snow removal policy had been followed correctly.
While we await that data, here's a sampling of some of the online reader response we received in the first two hours of our request for feedback.
-- Editor-in-chief Neil Godbout
January 2 and my street has yet to be plowed for the first time this winter, but that's because until recently, we hardly had any snow. Unplowed streets are a little rough, but that's no problem. Some people complain far too much over minor inconveniences. - artbetke
Why were there so many plow trucks running up and down Malaspina when we had no snow doing nothing and now we have snow, they are running up and down Malaspina doing nothing? - Wain Geraldo
Aside from not seeing any city or contract snow equipment either on Friday night or Saturday morning anywhere including the dreaded downtown core snow removal since then has been on par with what the city has laid out as their snow removal schedule. Despite many people who complain regardless of what the city does I feel they have performed adequately despite being caught with their pants around their ankles again during the initial snowfall. I would love to hear what the city has to say about lack of equipment on the roads Friday and Saturday. - Dearth
Not sure why it took so long to get to plowing Ferry Ave (on a bus route), it was a disaster. Even Jan 1, after it had been worked on (you can't call that "done"), it was still a mess. When the crews stop leaving giant piles of compressed ice chunks behind my vehicle, I may have more positive things to say. Got a bad back and can't shovel it away so now REALLY stuck. Life was better before plowing happened on my street. You guys do this to me every flipping year. I have nothing positive to say about the quality of work. - Megera
Well the money we paid for a snow removal consultant was a complete waste of money, because the city still has not done a sufficient job. Get the main arteries done first. Then move on to the side streets. Whoever's coordinating this needs to be reprimanded. The city streets are still a mess after a week. I definitely feel like I'm not getting what I paid for and now you wanna raise our rates 5%. Work within the budget a prioritize what the people of PG need, not what the politicians want. - U make me laugh
Just did my street this am... as a rule of thumb usually done a day or two before garbage pick up. Nice job! - Jack Jackson
I have been very confused by the stated system of Priority 1, 2, 3. There were several Priority 3 streets done before Priority 1. Notably Massey was not done - even on January 1st, 4 days after the big snow fall. I just don't understand why a bus route and a major artery was not done within 48 hours. We live on a priority 2 street, right beside a school with buses and we have not seen a plow at all. We are often forgotten for some reason (a problem from last year). They did a priority 3 street last night up the road from us...but not our road. I think it's a delegation problem, not the workers themselves. They are doing a great job once they show up. Whoever initiates the orders needs to re-look at what priority they are being done in. - Rachelle Munchinsky
We live on Norwood St. in between 20th and 17th and our street is a mess. Our street is in between the 2 streets that are on the bus route and we seem to be forgotten almost all the time. - Debbie Barks
The snow removal system needs a complete overhaul. Parking lots should not be a priority over roads. Our road is a complete mess and so is the bus route roads beside us but don't worry, parking lots are completely clear. Cities that are two or three times the size of our city have snow cleared on all roads within 48 hours of snowfall and all parking lots are cleared afterwards and only after all businesses have closed for the day. Take a look at the other cities and their success rate of proper snow removal and fix this broken system. - Shalix K
We had a grader come down our street the night before the big snowfall when the road was bare except for a little buildup on the sides from the previous snowfall in November. Our road is such a mess, we have several seniors that can't access medical care cause their cars get stuck and taxis won't come in. Only people with big trucks or SUV's are manouevering and even a couple of them have been stuck, we live in a crescent off Limestone. - northweststar
