Residents left unplowed in Vaughan for days; City says flooding a concern

yorkregion.com
April 17, 2018
Tim Kelly

Residents in Vaughan were left scratching their heads Sunday and Monday, wondering why their local streets and roads went unplowed despite plenty of warning that snow and sleet wound hit the city.

Richard Lorello, who lives in Kleinburg, wrote to Vaughan city manager Daniel Kostopoulos on Monday evening to complain about the state of Vaughan’s residential roads.

“We have a situation where roads have snow ruts on them that are several inches high and sewer grates that are covered with several inches of snow and sidewalks that are not walkable.”

“With temperatures dipping below zero tonight and tomorrow morning, this is a situation that is only going to get worse, thereby prolonging the effects of a bad storm that has led to dozens of accidents, hazardous driving and walking conditions. I am not blaming you or the city for what mother nature has bestowed upon us, but I have to question the judgment of staff,” Lorello said.

Stephen Collins, deputy city manager of public works, said a deliberate decision was made not to plow because of the following reasons: “the preparations we made prior to this winter event based on the forecasted freezing rain and heavy rain; the actual conditions that occurred over the weekend; the risk of flooding from blocked catch-basins and inlets; and significant rain forecasted for Sunday night and all-day Monday.”

Collins added that the decision not to plow was “made by the experienced professionals we have working for the city and their collaboration with peers at York Region. We did NOT base our decision on what another municipality (Toronto) decided to do to serve their citizens.”

Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua said that he had been informed by staff that plowing of city streets had begun early Tuesday afternoon.

“Staff has just advised me that plowing has begun. I have kept in contact with staff throughout this period and they recognize the difficulty and inconvenience residents have faced because of the unprecedented and unpredictable weather conditions.

"After seven salting operations of all City of Vaughan streets, followed by unexpected low temperatures, it has been determined by public works staff that citywide plowing is best to begin now,” said Bevilacqua.