Norm Mack has been employed with the City of Estevan for 30 years.
In that time, he’s seen some pretty memorable storms that have dumped piles of snow on the community. And there have been times in which storms have come in rapid succession, leaving a significant amount of snow behind and creating treacherous road conditions.
“We go as long and as hard as we can, because if you put in eight-hour days, it just seems like nothing gets done, and people’s patience grows thin.” Norm Mack
He remembers one time in 1998 when city crews had to work 24 hours consecutively.
So when he rates the twin weather systems that hit Estevan in late November and early December among the most powerful that he has seen, it’s a testament to how much snow Estevan received in a little more than a week.
“We’ve had some bad ones,” said Mack, who is the roads and drainage manager for the city’s public works department. “But when you start looking around, there’s a lot of snow around town now. We haven’t seen snow banks and drifts like this around town for a long time. And you’ll notice it more and more as companies start clearing and making piles on their lots, how much snow there really is.”
It also means the city employees tasked with snow clearing, as well as contractors, are going to have to dedicate many hours to clear the snow from streets, parking lots, sidewalks, pathways and other areas.
“I have a group of about a dozen pretty committed people, and a lot of them are newer,” said Mack. “A few of them come in at three in the morning every morning, and they go home at six at night, and this has been going on for the past week.”
Other employees will be in by 4 a.m. or 6 a.m. They want to tackle some of the snow removal before people are going to work or school.
“We go as long and as hard as we can, because if you put in eight-hour days, it just seems like nothing gets done, and people’s patience grows thin,” said Mack.
The employees take pride in their work, he said, and Mack noted he sometimes has to send them home at the end of the day because they have put in so many hours.
“We need committed people like that when we’re in trouble,” said Mack.
Mack estimates they have about a dozen dedicated employees working on snow clearing through the roads and drainage department, with equipment operators, truck drivers, labourers and mechanics.
“They do everything from blowing snow to driving trucks to running skid steers to running graders to shovelling snow for sidewalk clearing,” said Mack.
Lynn Ginnis serves as a roads and drainage foreman, and has done a fantastic job.
“She’s eager and well-organized,” said Mack.
The city also draws on contractors to help out with extra manpower and equipment, which can double the number of people working to clear the streets. Mack said the contractors are also dedicated to clearing the streets.
Estevan was enjoying an unseasonably warm November until Nov. 28, when a snowstorm rolled in that dumped nearly 30 centimetres of snow on the city over several days. Even before the snow had stopped, the snow clearing crews were out, cleaning up the streets to allow traffic to proceed.
“The 20 centimetres last week was manageable,” said Mack. “The snow was wetter. It came straight down pretty much, and there wasn’t a whole bunch of wind. There was quite a bit of snow, but the day before it was nice.”
The city knew another storm might be on the way, so they wanted to clear as much snow as possible.
“Some people questioned us and asked ‘Why the heck are you working Saturday and Sunday, and wasting overtime?’ And the answer is if you put another 30 centimetres on top of the 20 we got, then we’re in trouble. Now we’re happy that we did what we did.”
By the morning of Dec. 5, Mack estimated they had finished nearly 80 per cent of the snow clearing. But then the blizzard rolled through, dropped another 30 centimetres of snow, and packed high winds that whipped the snow around.
“Any time you get snow through a storm, you always have to anticipate when’s the next one,” said Mack. “You’re always watching the weather. So you try to get it off as fast and efficiently as you can.”
If the temperatures are going to warm up and the snow will melt, then they don’t have to dedicate as much overtime to the snow clearing. They didn’t have that luxury with the Dec. 5 storm, since it ushered in much colder temperatures.
Mack said the morale is pretty good among the city employees and the contractors. Mack has even been going out to operate the equipment, even though his management job would allow him to remain in his office if he wanted.
The last couple winters have been pretty tame as far as snow accumulations are concerned, but Mack noted there have been winters in which it’s a regular occurrence for city employees and contractors to work 15 hours a day. And he expects there will be a lot of long days in the next 10 to 14 days to clean up all the snow on the streets.
