A couple of mountain ranges are steadily gaining altitude on the outskirts of Warman and Martensville, thanks to hundreds of truckloads of snow being dumped every day.
“There’s an awful lot of snow coming into our dump area,” confirmed Warman Public Works Manager Jason Wiebe in an interview November 24. “This is the first time we’ve seen it fill up this much in such a short time.
“The snow piles are about 30 or 40 feet high. That’s way higher than they’ve ever been in past years. It looks like a mountain out there.”
Wiebe said two bulldozers are busy every day pushing snow into massive piles at the Warman snow dump to ensure there is sufficient room for the trucks to unload. So far, the process is going smoothly, and windrows in almost all residential streets should be removed by Friday, November 27.
“We’re hoping to have all the ridges removed from the streets by Friday,” said Wiebe. “But that’s not including the cul-de-sacs and narrow residential bays. Those will take a little longer.”
Wiebe said the record snowfall in such a short time strained the city’s resources.
“We put all our graders and trucks out right away,” said Wiebe. “It was all hands on deck. The first night, we had all 11 staff members out and they put in about 15 or 16 hour shifts. After that the length of shifts have gone down, but they still put in a 12-hour day on Remembrance Day thanks to a fresh snowfall that day.
“Last Sunday, November 22, was the first day off for staff since the storm.”
The city has also hired outside contractors to assist in the snow removal efforts.
It’s a similar situation in Martensville, as public works crews and contractors are working long days to ensure streets are cleared. Wiebe confirmed that clearing and removing snow from every street in the city is unprecedented.
He noted that while most residents remove their vehicles from the streets in order to allow graders, loaders and trucks to do their work, there are some who haven’t cooperated.
“It’s been a bit of a challenge, frankly,” said Wiebe. “We put up signage ahead of time, and we encourage everyone to make every effort to move their vehicles if they can.
“We all need to work together to get through this.”
Wiebe noted that Warman residents are able to bring their own truckloads or trailer-loads of snow to the Warman snow dump and dump it at no charge.