Mountain View County will budget just over $2 million for snow removal in 2012 under draft budget proposals reviewed by council's policies and priorities committee on Nov. 8.The figure represents a 46.5 per cent increase over the $1.385 million budgeted for 2011 ñ although actual spending on snow removal this year was already $1.8 million to the end of September.ìThis is budgeting for an average year, is what we're attempting to do,î corporate services director Greg Wiens told P&P.Pete Waycott, manager of infrastructure maintenance, said administration looked at the average number of hours in labour the county has used for snow removal.ìIt approximated there were about 13,000 hours of usage to fight winter storms,î Waycott said, with Wiens adding that those hours work out to about 13 full-time-equivalent positions.ìThat's about 1,000 hours per person available in the winter season,î Wiens said.Div. 7 Coun. Al Kemmere said he needed clarity, as he'd always understood that the much lower budget figures in the past were based on an average yearly snowfall.ìSome years we've had very little snow ñ I'm hoping we're figuring that into our average, too,î Kemmere said.Wiens acknowledged that previous snow removal budget estimates were based on 9,000 hours of labour. ìNine thousand was what was considered to be an average snowfall,î but this year administration didn't ìwant to be too aggressive in its projections and ìthere have been some service expectation changes as well,î he said.ìThirteen thousand I think is a good target for 2012.îThe key is ìfinding a happy medium in what we're committing to,î he said.ìIt's also managing this resource. If we have a big storm we'll probably want 15 plow trucks and eight graders capable of responding to the snow event.î Staff will also be working under the Alberta Highways Services contract until April 15, 2012, when the county plans to end the arrangement.ìSo there's maybe 20 people out during a snow event and very few people around if it's not snowing,î Wiens said. ìIf it isn't snowing we need to find other productive things for these people to be doing. Whether it's hauling gravel or ditching, we need to find other things.îThe 13,000 hours was ìa starting point, a barometer,î Waycott said.ìIn the past, the 9,000, 8,000 hours ñ I don't have any answers about those calculations. To me, 13,000 is a number I'm comfortable with,î he said.ìAs we get historical data we can come up with an employee level we need to have in order to address the service needs of Mountain View County.îKemmere asked if the change meant that the county wasn't budgeting enough staff hours in the past.ìThe 9,000 would have been based on historical averages up until that time,î Wiens said. ìNine thousand was probably quite an older number that we used in the 2004-2005 time frame.Although P&P trimmed several projects from the list during its review of the operational services draft budget proposals, Wiens said at the end of the meeting that there will be some pressure to cut further in order to reach a balanced budget when the committee meets Monday, Nov. 28 to review the full draft document.
