By Glenn Hicks

City ponders pushing snow onto sidewalks

Jan 30, 2019 | 3:08 PM

The city of Prince Albert is pondering plowing snow onto neighborhood sidewalks.

There is a limited amount of space left to store the unusually large amount of the white stuff that has already accumulated in the city, and we’re barely halfway through winter.

With another dump expected this week and given the big snowfall month of March that is yet to come, the mayor is letting the public know there may be no choice but to push snow where it shouldn’t normally go.

“I’m going to apologize for that in advance but of course we don’t control nature,” Greg Dionne told paNOW. “When you drive around our city now you see huge piles of snow where I’ve never seen them before.”

Dionne explained the city can only haul away a certain amount of snow because of the costs involved and the sheer volume, meaning they would have to push and pile it in places where they never have before.

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Dionne was eager to stress that would be a last resort but he’d heard from the public that keeping the roads clear was priority number one.

“People need to get their kids to school, get to the hospital and get to work,” he said. “I’d like to thank the residents for their support on this.”

Dionne acknowledged some residents would be unhappy about snow being piled on their sidewalks and could sympathize with that.

“I’m one of them [who’d be unhappy],” he said. “I keep my city sidewalk clear and I’m fortunate I have a boulevard in front of my house, but looking at it now there’s just no way any more snow can be put on it.”

Dionne said walking would become a challenge if they had to make the drastic move but “at the end of the day we have to give up something.”

With files from Charlene Tebbutt 

glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow