New safety protocols, late spring cited as reasons city street sweeping to continue into July

Street sweeping in Saskatoon won’t likely be completed until late July, more than a month later than it normally would be finished.

The new street cleaning and sweeping plan is part of City Council’s Financial and Operational Implications of COVID-19 report. It’s listed as the first appendix in the report, called Spring/Summer 2020 Service Levels.

Terry Schmidt, the city’s general manager of transportation and construction, says there are a few reasons why it’s going to take so long.

“One of the issues that is challenging to us is meeting some of the physical distancing requirements of our work-safety plans and that has to do a lot with our staff in the city yards,” Schmidt said. “So we are looking at options for staggering start and end times, and different types of methods where we can still meet the physical distancing requirements and still maximize productivity.”

Other reasons cited for the delay include changes to the city’s pandemic planning in March, and the late start to spring weather — although Coun. Darren Hill pointed out that there had been late spring starts in previous years.

Work is beginning in the downtown area and will spread out in the coming weeks. Chief financial officer Kerry Tarasoff told council that parking restrictions would be marked with sandwich boards.

Vehicle owners who are non-compliant won’t be fined, although their vehicles may be moved to another location a short distance away to allow street sweepers to complete their work.

Hill asked administration why there would be no ticketing this year.

“My concern is if that message is out there, we’re going to see very low compliance in the movement of vehicles in order to a proper sweep of the residential areas, so I would like us to rethink that ticketing,” he said.

Hill also asked how much that would cost the city, and was told about $300,000. That money goes into general revenue. He introduced an amendment to the plan, but was defeated 7-4.

Priority street sweeping, expressway, residential, and business improvement district street sweeping levels will remain the same.