By Margaret Houben
Over the past few weeks, a number of complaints have been voiced by Barriere residents concerning the snow plowing and sanding taking place by the District of Barriere on the roads within the community. The contract for road maintenance is with Quality Contractors, owned by Paul Morris.
Due to the controversy, especially comments being posted on social media, Morris contacted the District to arrange a public meeting regarding winter road conditions in the District of Barriere. The meeting was held at the Ridge on Jan. 15, at 7 p.m., with Morris, and District of Barriere Roads Manager Dustin Doherty speaking to local citizens about the state of Barriere roads and what could be expected from the District’s road maintenance contractor.
Morris opened the meeting by introducing himself and his work crew of three (one not being present at the meeting).
Doherty spoke next, explaining the contract that the District has with Quality Contractors regarding clearing snow and ice from municipal roads. He explained that the roads are rated as priority 1, 2 and 3 roads. Priority 1 roads are the main corridor roads, including Barriere Town Road and the school bus routes. Priority 2 roads are most of the rest of the local roads. Priority 3 roads include roads such as the one that goes to the Louis Creek Wildfire Monument Park, and roads that have few if any houses.
“As soon as a priority 1 road has 4 cm of snow, that is when the contractor is required to go out and plow,” stated Doherty, “For a priority 3 road it is when it reaches 8 cm that they are required to plow, and they have eight hours to get to it.”
He also noted, “For a typical snowfall, they have 24 hours to clear priority 1 and 2 roads, and 48 hours for priority 3 roads. The snowfall of Dec. 31, however, was far from typical.”
Several questions from those in attendance regarding which roads where which priorities followed. It was noted that Barriere Town Road is priority 1, and that Spruce Crescent, Birch Lane, and McLean Roads are priority 2.
Before taking questions from the floor, Morris reminded those present that the best way to let him know of their concerns about a particular area is to phone him.
“Don’t post it on Facebook,” stressed Morris, “I don’t look at Facebook, nor do I even have an account. Even if I did, when I’m in the truck I don’t have access to the internet. Phone me. If I’m busy, leave a message and I’ll usually get back to you within one to two hours.”
Morris also noted that he has had a few calls in the last two weeks from seniors who were concerned about the windrows in their driveways. “I do go back and deal with those,” said Morris, “But it won’t be immediate, as I may be in the middle of a priority 1 run, but I will get to it.”
Murray Purcha, who previously held the Road Maintenance contract for the District of Barriere and was in the audience at the meeting, asked, “Where there are no houses on one side of the road can you not push all the snow to that side?”
Morris answered “When we can, we do, but it isn’t always possible.”
Purcha also spoke briefly about personally plowing certain areas around his building and his neighbour’s driveways in Barriere.
At which point Doherty pointed out that as Purcha did not have a contract with the District, he should not be putting his blade down on the public roads. Purcha can do parking lots and driveways, but the public roads are strictly the responsibility of Quality Contractors.
Another resident spoke about his concern regarding the amount of snow piled up near his house on the corner of Station Road and Barriere Town Road, first for the amount of water the snow will produce when it finally starts melting, and second regarding the line of sight that is blocked by a pile of snow for those approaching the corner to be able to see traffic coming and whether or not it is safe to get onto Barriere Town Road.
Morris replied that Quality has plans to deal with moving the excess snow from corners to better locations this week or the next “provided the weather cooperates”. It was noted that unfortunately, corner lots do get the worst deal, and those with lower lots may have an issue with water when it starts to melt.
As the cold snap now seems to have abated, the recent warming trend in the weather is providing a window of opportunity for Barriere road maintenance to address a number of resident’s concerns, and also pre-plan for winter’s next onslaught.