City doubles back on neighbourhood streets as complaints mount

Snow clearing problems aren’t going away for the city.

Crews across Saskatoon finished the major project of getting driving lanes cleared on every residential street, but it’s still not meeting the expectations of all residents.

Heather Roberts lives on the corner of a crescent in Erindale and says her street is tough to navigate even with an all-wheel-drive vehicle.

“Our street was probably better before whatever came on our street came and did a little bit of whatever it did,” Roberts said.

“It’s not good.”

Roberts said neighbours told her a skid steer visited the street, but it’s obvious a plow or grader never made an appearance as sizeable ruts get worse with each warm day on the forecast.

“If they don’t take this snow off of our street we’re going to have problems,” she said.

Terry Schmidt is in charge of the snow clearing for the city of Saskatoon. He apologized to residents during an interview on the Brent Loucks Show Thursday.

“It remains our objective to get to every residential street that was missed or still has problem areas. We continue to work on that. We’ll do that over the coming days,” he said.

“We totally appreciate residents need to get out of their neighbourhoods. They need to get to work, they need get to medical appointments. I thank you for your patience.”

In addition to doubling back on streets, the city is also turning their attention toward removing large snow piles. Schmidt said the plan is to start in residential neighbourhoods next week. With Environment Canada is forecasting another 4 to 6 centimetres of snow Thursday, Schmidt is asking for patience.

“We’ve got plans to haul some of the snow. We’re also looking at what we’re calling ‘pocket’ storage areas in the neighbourhoods, be it be parks or other open areas where we can safely put some of the snow to help reduce some of the haul that is required.”

“It’s going to take several weeks until we can move all that snow. It’s just huge amounts.”

With residential neighbourhoods making up roughly 60 per cent of the city’s road network, Schmidt noted the snow clearing effort is the largest in the city’s history.

Roberts said she is thankful for the massive effort from the city and understands the large storm from earlier this month caused plenty of problems. She just wants to make sure the city knows there are parts of the city that will need extra attention before another snowstorm arrives.

“I’m disappointed with the city’s discretion on where they’re choosing to go and what they’re doing if they don’t bring a grader,” Roberts said. “What are you doing to help us to make our street better? Because we will be getting more snow.”