Snow drifts in Tiny Township are nothing new, but a council initiative for snow fencing could help minimize occurrences and make roads safer for everyone.
At the recent committee of the whole meeting, a public works report offered council a $7,500 option to install roughly a kilometre of snow fencing along municipal properties on the few areas where snow drifts most occur.
To install the barriers, a distance of 42 metres from such roads was recommended. According to public works director Tim Leitch, although the township has the authority under the Municipal Act to install such fencing on any private land along any highway, both he and all of council agreed that cooperation with property owners was the best path forward.
“Unfortunately, this is something that is difficult to do,” said Leitch. “It’s not that (the farmers) are not willing to help, but there are some restrictions (and) issues that they have brought to our attention.” Those included cross-contamination of crops and crop rotation.
Leitch added that January had received twice the amount of snow than expected, further noting that a significant weather event had been issued by the township through their Tiny Connect website.
“This is all purely high-level unsubstantiated unaudited numbers,” said Leitch when asked how bad the roads were in January. “In discussing with the crews that night, we probably had five or six locations that had road closures – that had the drifting was so bad that our plows couldn't even get through it.”
Mayor Dave Evans reasoned that the cost, to be funded from the snow plowing materials budget, would be well worth the money. “From personal experience, a couple of weeks ago just north of Conc. 6 on CR-6, I personally stopped at about five or six cars that had just driven off the road because you (couldn’t) see; it was dark as well.
“You make sure people have enough gas and call the tow truck company and get in line,” said Evans. “Tow trucking is not cheap. In the context of $7,500, I think that was probably spent by those people that were on the side of CR-6 that night.”
Coun. Steffen Walma said from a first-responder perspective, it would be “a huge benefit on stormy days”, and thanked former fire chief and Tiny councillor Tony Mintoff for the initial credit on the proposal.
Deputy Mayor Sean Miskimins told MidlandToday after the meeting that changing conditions can happen at any time, and for residents to keep their vehicles prepared for unexpected winter occurrences.
“Always use caution: make sure you’ve got snow tires; make sure you've got an emergency kit in your car, because if you do get stuck in a drift you could be hours waiting for a tow truck; keep little tea lights; snacks and bottles of water. I know they might get frozen but they can defrost pretty quickly,” said Miskimins.
He added that not passing snow plows on roads was of great importance.
“I always say I'd rather be five minutes late in this life than five minutes early into the next.”
The snow fencing trial report can be viewed on the agenda page on the Township of Tiny website.
Archives of council meetings are available to view on the Township’s YouTube channel.