Keeping a residential driveway clear of snow can be a daunting task for homeowners enduring another long Midland winter. Now, imagine the effort involved in the organization, scheduling, and mobilization of winter snow removal equipment required by the Town of Midland operations team to keep Midland’s massive grid of roadways clear each winter.
The Operations Department is responsible for maintaining roads and sidewalks to a high standard of service and safety. That means following the Ontario Minimum Maintenance Standards (MMS) during snow events large and small. And regardless of where you live, the plows have to be activated in a sequence the prioritizes high traffic roads that aid emergency service vehicles on their routes.
Sometimes that requires the cooperation of residents; from November 15th to April 1st, all Town roads and parking lots need to be clear of vehicles between the hours of 12am and 7am to allow for plowing. Unfortunately, not everyone cooperates, and that can cause issues for Town employees tasked with plowing.
“I would love to say everyone is understanding,” said Town of Midland Operations Manager Joshua Fuller. “When we’re in the middle of a storm, we have to plow Class 1, 2 and 3 roads before we start plowing Class 4, 5, and 6 roads. These are rules mandated by the MMS to help keep critical roads free of snow.”
To help educate residents and provide information related to winter road maintenance, Fuller said the Town of Midland has offered two options people can utilize to get informed. The first is a series of Winter Operations Open House events that shares insights on strategies and procedures on snow removal tactics. The public is invited to engage directly with Operations staff, observe equipment used for winter maintenance and snow removal, share their concerns and ask any questions. The second option is the ”Where’s My Plow” platform on the Town’s website.
“The Where’s My Plow application on our website is tool available to residents to be able to track where the plow is, when it has gone through their neighbourhood, or when it can be expected to arrive,” said Fuller. “It does have a 40-minute delay on the tracking of the plow, but it does give residents an idea of when they can expect their road to be plowed.”
Ultimately, Fuller said the goal is simply to help residents understand the challenges faced by the Town of Midland and the methods it employs to keep all residents and visitors to the area moving during heavy winter snowfalls. That’s important given the fact that Midland has already had more snow this year than all of last year.
“It’s nice that the community has options to come in with any questions they might have about the how, why, and when we come up with our snow plowing activity. It gives us opportunity to explain to residents some of the handcuffs we have in dealing with road plowing, like making sure that we’re maintaining those minimum standards. Our goal next year is to have the Open Houses much earlier.”