Snow left along the side of a road in Vernon as of January 30, 2024 (Liam Verster / Vernon Matters Staff)

By Liam Verster

Snow Clearing Halted

Remaining snow on Vernon roads to be left up to Mother Nature

Jan 30, 2024 | 1:00 PM

Vernon crews will not be addressing the snow left on some roads and culverts in the city, saying it’s not a safety issue and will melt away.

Some areas still have snow packed down along the sides of roads and sidewalks, but Ian Adkins, Vernon’s manager of roads, drainage and airport, said it would not be cleared by crews.

“Over the past few weeks, since the snow stopped falling, we’ve gone around and made safety assessments to look at all the areas that have sight line issues, traffic sight line issues, or safety concerns,” Adkins told Vernon Matters. He noted school zone parking areas were also addressed before moving into residential areas where those issues were found, but added the operations had halted and the packed down snow on some roads would not be addressed.

“There’s really only small amounts left that isn’t causing traffic safety or anything in that nature, so there won’t be any more removal now. Mother Nature has also been working in our favour to help really get rid of that snow quite rapidly.”

Reflecting on the rapid melt, Adkins noted that Vernon did not face any drainage issues after the snow event.

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“Everything’s been working quite well. Our crews have been out opening catch basins, residents were calling in after that media release and they were helping by reporting any areas that they experienced any flooding or pooling or catch basins that they couldn’t get to themselves, so that worked out really well,” Adkins stated.

“We did remove some snow in areas that we traditionally know have poor drainage, just flat roads, flat areas and things like that.”

Following the snow event in Vernon, some residents had complaints of snow being pushed off the road and onto sidewalks, which Adkins addressed while speaking with Vernon Matters.

“It’s never the intent of any operator to be pushing the snow up onto the sidewalk. I mean, [with] heavy equipment, sometimes the visibility is limited. We work at night when we’re doing snow removal. So if that does ever occur, just contact our city operations, let us know and we’ll take care of it.”

The snow did not last long in Vernon, and although Adkins could not speak to how much of the city’s snow removal budget was used to clear the roads in that time, he noted it was still early in the year, and he did provide information on the previous year’s snow removal budget.

“As of 2023, we did work through about two-thirds of our snow and ice budget,” he stated.

“Most of that was predominantly in the spring of the year, the early winter of 2023, the January to March. [Then] November and December was quite light this year.”

Adkins noted the snow removal cost in 2023 translated to roughly $750,000 of the $950,000 budget.

He noted funds not spent this year will either be put back into the snow and ice reserve or allocated towards other city projects.

While the mercury has been climbing and there hasn’t been a risk of snowfall recently, Adkins reminds people that it is still winter and people should be prepared for changing conditions.

“My advice is to always drive to the conditions. It is still winter, we do have crews that are out in the morning doing road inspections, crews are applying sand and anti-icing agents where required, but it is still winter,” he said.

“So always drive to conditions, [use] appropriate winter tires, allow for that extra time on a morning where you may experience some sub-zero temperatures or close to freezing.”

Adkins added city crews are ready to respond “at a moment’s notice” to any future snow events.