The Citizen, 2010-12-23, Page 1To an individual, the cost of winter
may be substantial. Snow tires, a
snowblower, salt, shovels, brushes,
time away from work, the list goes
on.
For the Huron County Public
Works Department, however, winter
can cost close to $50,000 per day
during periods of heavy snowfall.
Director of Public Works David
Laurie says that during the last two
weeks, Huron County’s fleet of
vehicles has been running at 20
hours per day, nearly consistently,
because of the relentless snowfall.
Between fuel, upkeep on vehicles
and wages, each vehicle on the road
can cost as much as $120 per hour,
multiplied by 20 vehicles, running
20 hours a day, the cost per day to
run snow removal vehicles is just
over $38,000.
This, however, does not even
factor in de-icers like salt, sand and a
new formula the department has
been using, rather unsuccessfully in
the past two weeks because of the
consistently heavy snowfall, an anti-
icing liquid comprised of half salt
brine and half beet juice extract.
Once those substances are factored
in, at as much as $10,000 per day,
snow removal in Huron County can
steadily climb towards the $50,000
mark, Laurie says.
With snow removal shifts running
from 4 a.m. to midnight, vehicles
have been receiving just a four-hour
break in the last two weeks of
relentless snowstorm activity in the
county.
This, too, poses a problem, Laurie
says, as there isn’t much “garage
time” for the vehicles. So if there is
a malfunction or a breakdown, it
often has to be dealt with on the fly,
as any small issue with one of the
vehicles can be enough to sideline it.
“If the windshield wipers stop
working, if the defogger quits, that
truck’s out of commission,” he said.
“Only when the highways have been
closed by the OPP have we got a
break to work on our vehicles.”
Laurie says that when four major
highways were closed by the OPP
earlier last week, while the late fall
storm was at its worst, his
department was actually given a
window to return its vehicles and
tune them up in preparation for
another shift in the snow.
Amazingly, Laurie says, incidents
have been few and far between
during the nearly two weeks of
steady snowfall.
He says that because of near-zero
visibility, there have been
snowplows that have gone off of the
road and there have been some
repairs that have had to be made, but
for the most part, snow removal has
run according to plan during this
unexpected blast of winter weather.
Huron County runs a brigade of 16
tandem-axle trucks, to plow snow in
addition to distributing salt and sand,
and three graders, used to push
snow.
The aforementioned anti-icing
liquid, which has been used
unsuccessfully over the past two
weeks, hasn’t been able to do its job
because of the high level of snowfall
the county has seen.
Laurie says the formula is meant
North Huron Council denied a
request from Ashfield-Colborne-
Wawanosh (ACW) Township
Council to enter into an Automatic
Aid agreement for ACW’s portion of
Auburn on Monday.
North Huron’s Committee of the
Whole made the suggestion at their
Dec. 13 meeting and council
approved it at their Dec. 20 meeting
on the recommendation of Fire
Chief John Black.
Auburn has been a hot-bed of fire
coverage issues since local fire
boards were dismantled and North
Huron council decided to assume
the running of fire halls within its
borders by amalgamating Blyth Fire
Department and Wingham Fire
Department into the North Huron
Fire Department.
Black’s report explains the
difference between Automatic Aid
and Mutual Aid stating that Mutual
Aid is based upon reciprocation with
no fees involved. Black said that
Automatic Aid is an agreement that
ensures the closest fire station is
going to respond to any emergency
regardless of “artificial boundaries.”
“Automatic aid, unlike mutual aid,
is not intended to be provided at no
charge to the municipality receiving
the assistance,” Black stated in his
report.
Mutual Aid, according to Black, is
also an optional service, whereas
Automatic Aid is a contract North
Huron must adhere to.
“Automatic Aid is a contract for
services to be performed, whereas
Mutual Aid is a request for
assistance,” he said in his report.
“Should North Huron be committed
to other emergencies in its coverage
area and a request for Mutual Aid is
made, North Huron can refuse under
the terms of the Mutual Aid Plan and
program. Such is not the case under
Automatic Aid.”
Black acknowledges that Blyth is
in the best position to respond to
Auburn’s fire calls, stating that,
while Blyth can respond within
seven to nine minutes, Lucknow’s
response time is approximately 29
minutes and Central Huron’s is
estimated at 25 minutes.
Black stated that an agreement
We wish you a Merry Christmas
Members of the Blyth Public School Kindergarten class helped teach the audience about how
Christmas is celebrated in Denmark on Dec. 16 at the school’s annual Christmas concert.
Despite having six snow days in the last two weeks of the school year, the students were able
to perform the concert without a hitch that night. From left: Caleb Westra, Nyla Pawitch, Brody
Lovie, Gregory Linscott and Ava Ansley. (Shawn Loughlin photo)
NH Council rejects fire agreement
Huron County winters cost up to $50,000 per day
Snow days haven’t
affected school year
Thursday, Dec. 23, 2010 $1.25 GST included
CitizenTh
e
Volume 26 No. 50
Students of the Avon Maitland
District School Board don’t have to
worry about having their P.D. days
or their summer eaten up due to
snow days just yet, says
communications director Steve
Howe.
Howe stated that, while the six
days that some schools were closed
were a cause for concern, the board
wasn’t panicking yet.
“We really have no set number of
days that can be missed before we
have to react,” he said. “We just
monitor ever winter closely.”
Howe explains that the curriculum
the board follows states that certain
subjects have to touch on certain
ideas throughout the year. That
being said, there isn’t a set amount
of days teachers have in which to
cover the curriculum.
“Snow days lead to a shortened
time period to touch on all those
aspects,” he said. “But teachers plan
ahead for these kinds of things.”
Howe explained that teachers
often have assignments ready for
students to take home to do in case
they suspect a snow day is coming.
“We also have web pages for each
teacher,” he said. “Students can link
to these pages for assignments on
snow days.”
Another tactic teachers use to
combat lost time is to have lessons
planned for suspected snow days
that can be missed. By planning
additional lessons, they have some
wiggle room in hitting their
curriculum-mandated lessons.
The last time the school board had
to act due to snow days was in 2006.
“In January of 2006 we had
horrible weather almost all month,”
he said. “Schools were closed the
first day students were supposed to
come back [from the Christmas
break].”
Through that January there were a
grand total of 13 days in which
schools were closed in a month that
was already shortened.
“That year we had two schools,
Colborne Public School and
Brookside Public School, that had
15 and 16 snow days, respectively,”
he said. “The school board decided
to add more days to the in-school
calendar to help teachers cover their
lessons.”
Howe stated that there is no magic
number of snow days that will lead
to action, it’s dependant on how
wide-spread the storm system is
that’s closing schools, and how
spread out they are.
If only a few schools are affected
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
Continued on page 47
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Continued on page 47
Continued on page 38