You look back to Christmas 2015 in North Bay and there was literally no snow on the ground.
Well, now that you jump forward to February 29th in this leap year, and the landscape looks very different.
Now, the snow blower enhanced snow banks can be measured at over six feet in some areas of the city.
Needless to say, that heavy snowfall in February has been a challenge for public works crews to keep up with.
“It’s the amount of snow that is falling in a short period of time,” said Tanya Vrebosch, the Chair of Engineering, Public Works and Environmental Services.
“It’s not so bad when the snow falls and you have a week to recover for a cleanup. But the last one that hit us was quite substantial from something like 25 to 30 centimetres. We were trying to keep the main roads open and once we got those ones open they went off to do the side roads.”
Vrebosch admits the heavy snowfalls, like the ones Sunday and last Wednesday, have put a strain on the snow removal budget.
“I’m pretty positive we have spent over what we spent in overtime and just regular winter maintenance,” stated Vrebosch.
She says the snow removal has also put pothole repairs on the back burner.
The good news, the weather forecast that indicated North Bay was set to receive more than 40 centimetres of snow on Wednesday, March 2nd has now changed to a forecast of less than five centimetres.
