By: Nick Martin
The city could clear every sidewalk around every school in Winnipeg right after a snowfall next winter.
But it will require city council to approve a major policy change at a significant but unknown cost this summer, right before October's municipal election.
"We'd be looking at the impact of making the sidewalks around schools priority 1 or priority 2," said Jim Berezowsky, the city's manager of street maintenance. "The expectation is they want it to be done the first day."
Pembina Trails School Division raised alarms earlier this winter when the city was considering reducing snow-clearing operations on residential streets.
Berezowsky said that prompted the city to re-examine its snow-clearing policies, particularly on sidewalks around school properties.
The city has three priority levels for sidewalks, he said.
Depending on how major the roadway in front of a school, the front-entrance sidewalk and school-bus loading zone would currently be cleared in the first or second wave of operations. But most schools have the vast majority of their property, including school fields, along residential side streets, and those sidewalks along school property have been a third-level priority.
That could change next winter, but it would mean buying more sidewalk snow-clearing machines and hiring people to operate them, Berezowsky said.
He said the city clears sidewalks after five centimetres of snowfall.
"It's going to be an increased cost to the city. As a policy decision, it would still have to go to council" after staff finishes their study and report back sometime this summer.
It's a matter of safety, Berezowsky said. Most families drive their kids to school, but they'd let them off earlier if the kids could walk safely the rest of the way, he said.
"It's because of the amount of traffic that picks up and drops off kids. They want to be able to drop them off farther away."
He wrote Pembina Trails school board chairman David Johnson the city's decision will be announced in August.
Berezowsky replied to the division's letter to Mayor Sam Katz "regarding priority concerns of snow clearing in and around schools within the Pembina Trails School Division. Previous discussions with school divisions appeared to be centred solely around residential streets for the priority enhancements during winter months," Berezowsky said. "Sidewalks never appeared to be a consideration during those previous talks. We will definitely analyze sidewalk clearing in conjunction with the street-service priority given in the winter months to the various schools.
"I will provide you with an update in August 2014 on the status of sidewalks as they pertain to the winter enhanced service in and around schools," he wrote.
Pembina Trails superintendent Ted Fransen was delighted.
"We're very pleased to hear the city is taking our concerns seriously," Fransen said.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 9, 2014 B1