The city is looking to bring in a contract position to improve its street-sweeping efforts.
Council asked staff earlier in the year to look at ways to get streets and sidewalks cleared of sand in the spring in a more timely manner.
One way to do that, according to staff, is to bring a contract worker on board at a cost of $50,000.
About half of street and sidewalk sweeping is currently done by contract workers, with the rest being done by city staff.
With this additional position, about 99 per cent will be done by contract workers. Downtown sweeping would still be done by staff.
The city fields complaints every spring from residents in different areas of town because priority areas alternate annually. This move should lead to fewer concerns, Andrew Schell, general manager of environment and infrastructure services, said during Thursday’s budget committee meeting.
“This will actually expedite the works,” he said.
Coun. Pat Hehn has heard a number of concerns from residents, so she was ready to support the budget request.
“Anything we can do to make the process faster and have the streets swept faster would certainly be a benefit to the citizens of Orillia,” she said.
Operating budget discussions wrapped up this week. The capital budget will be discussed next week. All decisions require ratification at a special council meeting Dec. 6.
