Here's what it costs to keep Newmarket safe in winter

Yorkregion.com
March 14, 2019
Teresa Latchford

On the tail end of what seems like a long winter, the Town of Newmarket has already calculated what it will cost to keep you safe during the next snowy season.

The Town of Newmarket completes a calculation annually, for each budget period, to estimate the funds needed to cover off the cost of winter maintenance prior to the arrival of winter. This calculation is primarily based on the average needs, including supplies, materials and staff time costs, from the past five years, according to Newmarket operations manager Mark Gregory.

“Winter maintenance budgets can be tricky to estimate because of the uncertainty of the weather events that we may experience at any given time of year,” he added.

However, the town has prepared for the unpredictable and has a winter control reserve set aside to deal with the fluctuation of winter maintenance costs.

“At the end of each year, if the costs are higher than actual, we draw money from the winter control reserve to cover the over budget amount,” he said. “If the actual costs are lower than budget, we transfer savings to winter control reserves.”

It takes a lot to keep roadways, sidewalks and trails clear and safe for use by residents to get them where they need to go through rain, sleet, freezing rain and snow, including through planning, technology and access to an adequate fleet of snow-clearing vehicles.

Specifically, in Newmarket, the town operates seven of its own plows and hires five contracted plows used during a significant snow fall event. The kilometres of maintained road has increased over the years being 255 km in 2014 to 312 km this year.

The town also operates 10 sidewalk tractors, with two spares on deck, and one trail tractor as well as two fill trucks making 10 sidewalk routes with 209 km to clear and 15 km of trails to clear.

The town also uses contracted services, which maintain six more routes totalling 141 km of sidewalk using six sidewalk tractors and two fill trucks.

The total number of snow events as tracked by town staff does indicate there were slightly more snow events this year compared to the last five years documented. In the winter of 2014/15 there were 52 snow events, in 2015/16 there were 45, in 2016/17 there were 54, 2017/18 there were 58 and this year, so far, there have been 64 snow events.

The number of snow events, among other materials and staff time needed to clear roads, sidewalks and trails play a significant role in what it cost the town to keep roadways safe during the winter.

In 2014, winter cost the town $1.4 million, $1.2 million in 2015, $1.5 million in 2016, $1.5 million in 2017 and $1.4 million in 2018, which is the first year the town piloted the usage of treated salt on town streets and sidewalks.

For more about winter costs or the town’s budget, visit Newmarket.ca.