The work is well underway to clear the snow from the streets of Weyburn after the winter storm on the weekend. The crews started Sunday evening on priority routes, and the work continued throughout the day Monday. Tuesday morning, the work started in downtown Weyburn. As the crews are working, the City of Weyburn is asking residents to be patient.  

“One thing we’re wanting to remind drivers of is our crews are trying to clear spaces like downtown, which is tight and narrow – not a lot of room to move,” explained Paige Tenbult. She is the Communications Coordinator for the city. “We really need people to understand that parking on the street is not ideal in this situation, as well as just the safety aspect. This is our crews’ work zone, and these pieces of equipment are incredibly heavy.  

Motorists are asked to be aware of where the crews are working and to find alternate routes around the work areas whenever possible.  

“When we’re encountering a ton of traffic, it slows down our operations, makes things very difficult, and can also make things very unsafe,” Tenbult continued.  

The type of snow received in Weyburn, along with some melting that is happening in the sunlight, despite the sub-zero temperatures, is making the task of clearing the snow a little more tedious at times. 

“As many drivers and residents will be aware, we do windrow the snow first, and then we come in and clear it out,” Tenbult said. “Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to leave some of those windrows up overnight.” 

While the windrows are being left up, they will be cleared away.  

While the crews will be doing what they can to minimize the impact of the windrows in the downtown area, there is also a reminder for residents to not create windrows of their own from the snow they move from their driveways and sidewalks.  

“We really need residents to help us and cooperate with us, especially our bylaw that speaks to not pushing snow onto the road,” Tenbult stated. “It just can cause a lot of havoc on those residential streets when you have the snow just piling onto the road.” 

The snow piling up can also make things more difficult when the city crews do get into the residential streets, as they are the last places to have the snow removed.