It’s time for the City of Orillia to revisit its winter control policies.
This week, OrilliaMatters published a story about the challenges the municipality faces when it comes to keeping our main thoroughfares, side streets and sidewalks clear of snow. First off, we recognize it’s a difficult job and it’s impossible to please everyone. We also know front-line staff – the drivers of those plows that work in often perilous conditions, navigating around vehicles and obstacles that make their job hellish – toil long hours and work hard.
But as Andrew Schell, the city’s director of environmental services and operations, noted, “climate change is definitely here.” Over the last five years, there has been a dramatic surge in the amount of snow Orillia has experienced. That trend has coincided with an increase in complaints and, generally speaking, a growing frustration with the level of service.
While some would argue about the condition of our roads in the wake of snowfalls, that is not where the biggest problem lies. The most troublesome issue, when it comes to winter maintenance in this city, is the state of our sidewalks. Many typically resemble skating rinks rather than safe passageways. Often, it’s nearly impossible to access sidewalks whose entry points are shrouded in icy mounds left from passing road plows.
The city has just six sidewalk plows that are responsible for about 120 kilometres of sidewalks. When you factor in their speed – they travel, on average at about 10 kilometres an hour – it’s easy to see why it often takes quite a while for sidewalks to be cleared.
But that’s not really the issue. The issue is that sidewalks are not a priority. According to the city’s policy – and this is mandated, for obvious reasons, by the province – roads must be the No. 1 priority. With that in mind, the city’s policy requires sidewalks to be plowed within 24 hours of eight centimetres of snow falling – on arterial routes and around schools. For side streets, that time bloats to 48 hours.
It seems increasingly obvious that standard is simply not good enough for most citizens. More than 450 people cast their vote in our poll about winter plowing: 325 people said the city’s snow-clearing efforts were “terrible” and/or the city’s winter control policies need to be revisited. Basically, about 72 per cent of those who responded were dissatisfied.
On social media channels this week, a widely-shared incident in which a three-year-old ended up in a full body cast after a bad fall on an ice-covered city sidewalk drew the ire of most who saw it. It’s a symbol of all that is wrong with the city’s current policies. Notwithstanding a flash freeze and unpredictable weather, the city must do better.
We hope city council sees this as an opportunity to revisit its policies. City fathers love to talk about our trails and tout the merits of active transportation and being a four-season paradise. But the state of our sidewalks in the winter puts the lie to those claims. The reality is, for long stretches of time in the winter months, our sidewalks are impassable. Many of the Orillia Transit bus stops around the city are hidden by mountains of snow that force riders to wait on busy streets. It’s embarrassing, it’s dangerous and it needs to be addressed.
