Discussions

Has the plowing been contracted out, or is it still performed by City of Brandon workers? Noticing a huge difference in quality of cleaning. Park Ave has strip of snow all down the middle of the street, that usually doesn’t happen it’s being done so half arsed or whoever is in the West end tonight is in a hurry to go to the wheat king game. Nobody plows as good as Trevor omg he would be horrified seeing how slap happy it was done! Perhaps someone in the know could weigh in and answer is it contracted out or performed by City workers please! TIA

The wind doesn't help at all in the cleanup. But I find a lot of the roads to be in bad shape and city hasn't even plowed them still. Even bus routes haven't been plowed at all.  
 
I shake my head that busy streets aren't plowed and you have side streets plowed in the same area.  
 
9th st South is in bad shape.

Like it’s an all across town kinda thing. Yes of course the wind certainly hampers things and I understand it takes time to plow the whole city in its entirety, but sorry quality just is lacking this year. NEVER any sand out anywhere

Lots of main roads still not done properly and are a mess. 1st being one of them.

1st Street is done by the Province. I know there are a few the province does and I think that is one of them, correct me if I am wrong.

As far as we know, 1st is considered hwy’s (province).....but any time we’ve had to call about it, hwys tell us to call the city and the city tells us to call hwys...so who knows?!? Lol  
 
It’s cleared now From what I saw out the window, it looks good.

I don't understand what 'priority routes' mean. I always thought it meant streets that were well used by traffic and city transit. However in the last two days 10th. street has not been cleared. Between 10th. and 9th. on Van Horne is spotless for whatever reason.

It seems as though the priority route for the city means Brookwood. Took a drive there last night and 85% of all the streets are nicely plowed as if they never saw any snow. Meanwhile, majority of the main streets remain unplowed. Makes you wonder, who thinks the Brookwood is more important than the 1st St, Park Ave, etc.

Our street and anything connecting to it was well done. Can’t be easy to coordinate clearing an entire city in so few days. Only feedback would be that it’d be great if there was just a little more attention to detail by the follow up machine that moves stuff from end of the driveway. It wasn’t that long ago the city didn’t even provide this service and so it’s great to have at all but in our neighbourhood there was still quite a bit of residue to move and it’s got some weight to it. No big deal for an able bodied dude, but grandma and grandpa might see it differently!  
 
Edited by Adam, 2019-01-09 17:11:14

Lots of criticism - not a lot of positive solutions suggested.

As is the norm when the discussion is about snow removal or road construction lol

Adam, was your driveway okay for backing the vehicle out? I sure don't want to have to move ice chunks before driving out! The snow pack from the wind was bad enough!

So what do you suggest? I suggest that the city snow clearing crew do their job as well as they can, it's what they get paid to do! That's all we ask!

We aren’t on a bus route so don’t expect our street to be a priority. Even so, the city has been fantastic with cleaning and even scooping out the driveways afterwards. The map shows we are being cleaned tomorrow so we made sure the vehicles are off the street for them.

My street was done yesterday. The street is great...my drive way is ok. I have some fairly large chunks that will have to be moved but I get that they can't all be perfect. What I do have a small problem with...just a small problem is when they moved the snow from my drive way and piled it on the corner of my lawn, I can see where they dug up the corner of my yard. I always have a big mess there in the spring when the snow melts with gravel and salt that stays when the snow is gone but I have never had the lawn ripped up. Will evaluate the damage in the spring but the little bit I can see is going to have to be replaced. Keep up the good work city crews...but could you be just a little more careful.

Wasn’t trapped at all, just had to target the right spot and take a good run at it. This is the first year with our little entry level AWD... I’m not sure the Prius of prev years would’ve seen it the same way  
 
Either way in my case it’s just a few minutes with the right heavier duty shovel to take care of... but I can picture someone at a different stage in life having to make a phone call or knock on a neighbours door for a quick hand!  
 
Like I say, appreciative of the work they do and the fact they even move the end of driveway stuff in the first place. At the other end of the spectrum if they do too much, it amounts to a lot more time and time is money. Constructively speaking just a little more attention to detail and we’re set!  
 
Edited by Adam, 2019-01-10 10:41:55

I have this issue too. Corner by the hydrant and the whole boulevard in front of the house is now more weeds than grass because they scraped it too much last year. Frustrating

leaving a big ridge that I might have to clean up? Not looking forward to when the crew comes by! Wonder why the city crew is leaving a mess to clean up? Inexperienced operator maybe?  
 
We shouldn't have to pay someone to come and clean up a ridge that the crew leaves!

My street (fotheringham) was plowed the second day after the snowfall left a ridge for an hour or so then returned to clean it up, I'd say they did a decent job. I did see a few cars stuck at Fotheringham and Victoria but there's only so much they can do.

We pulled onto our street and the front end loader was clearing driveways. He was a few houses down, but when he saw us with our turn signal on, he stopped and came to clear ours right away, only had a small ridge to shovel after. Great job.

I suggest that's what I was saying with my post. I agree with what you're saying. Let the crews do their job.

And also 13th Street have a solid ridge right down the middle and higher ridges on the sides. A matter of time before it pulls a vehicle into oncoming traffic.

Why are back lanes being cleared and there are residential streets that haven't seen a plow yet. Wow.. back lanes should be the last thing the city should be plowing!

I wondered why our backlane was done before the street too but it was our garbage day on Tuesday so I wondered if that played into it? Our backlane was done Monday.

To me it makes sense to clear back lane before a garbage day, otherwise the internet would be flooded with people complaining about how their garbage wasn't picked up fast enough.... look I get that it is frustrating that roads aren't cleared the same night after a snow fall, heck where I live (not in Brandon) I know they will only clear my bay until at least 3 days after lots of snow. But If snow comes on a Saturday I know i have to wait at least till Wednesday before someone comes. It is what it is, and I plan accordingly. I mean, we do live in Manitoba, and we all know these big snow falls are bound to happen, why are we still surprised and upset? The workers do their best, as I am sure everyone here who has a job tries their best at what they do too. But it would be a difficult job to do knowing that 95% of the population is complaining and unhappy about the work you do . I'd hate it, knowing I have to put in long hours and still most everyone is ungrateful and sending complaints to my managers, despite my best efforts ..... to me I think that we need to be happy we have a city that does clear the streets relatively well, and hey, if we are abled bodied people, why not take that shovel to the person next door who may need help? That's my opinion, I could be very well wrong though.

Don't see why garbage pickup would be the reason why back lanes are being cleared before residental streets. Even residential streets have garbage pickup, and their not cleared.

I think there doing an amazing job !! I’m sure there so busy at this time!!

And here I was worried for nothing! Thought I would have to clear a ridge before getting out of my driveway and break my back! Lucky our block we didn't have to do that!  
 
Why? Because once again the plow didn't plow! Although other streets and avenues around us have been cleaned three or four times already we don't rate the blade I guess!

an amazing job of clearing the same streets and avenues time after time..... while the rest get squat

Our street got done late last night - great job as always!!  
 
Funny story that shows how good we got it here - my parents live in Winnipeg and one day a year or two ago they were visiting when the plow came. My dad started putting on his coat and I asked him where he was going. He told me that he was going to shovel the ridge at the end of the driveway for me. I told him to just wait.  
 
Sure enough, the loader came along a few minutes later and cleared the ridge. My parents stood there, slack-jawed and amazed. In Winnipeg, they have to clear the ridge in both the front sidewalk and their back lane, which is sometimes 3 feet high because they plow so infrequently. Then my dad goes to his mom''s and does it all over again.  
 
I love Brandon.  
 
Edited by Abbysmum, 2019-01-11 10:04:47