Discussions

They've been working their butts off!! Too bad people who refuse to move their vehicles make their jobs harder!!

Those would be the people who complain that their street isn't cleared, and than when it is they complain about their vehicles boxed in by the plow. Wish people would give these folks some room to work so that they can do a good job of clearing the streets instead of hindering them.

Yes! I agree completely!! Too many vehicles have been left on the street for plows to go around! It'd be nice if they got towed. Or remember when they used to put signs up and then ticket offenders?

I remember those times, not sure why that went by the wayside, seems like easy revenue, but that's a total other topic.

When they stare out the window while you plow around the vehicles and only after the grader leaves and the loader is finishing do they come out and move. Then want you to remove the snow pile.  
 
Or when people call to say their driveway wasn't clear when it's only an inch high ridge. That takes the loader away from the work it was doing. There have been few that called the emergency line because of that. And when your doing thousands of driveways, walkways, sidewalks, etc. in a 12hr shift. There are going to be some actually missed. Just call it in and we will be sent there when we get a moment.  
 
And the loaders aren't glued to the back of the grader. They can be a few blocks away or still working on another street, but it will be there. And also wait till the grader is actually done. Seen many people start clearing after the grader makes one pass then get upset when the grader fills in the driveway on a second pass.  
 
But I do appreciate the good comments and thanks to those who understand. Unless your actually in the grader or loader do you realize it's not an easy job. From the outside it might look easy, but it's not. The shift tonight will likely finish what's left of the residential areas, which is south of Richmond.  
 
Right now, we are bouncing from one area to another fairly quickly, a tow truck might not keep up. And residents don't get much prior warning that we are going to be there. So it's not entirely their fault. And we can't give much of a warning other than the city Facebook page and the snow clearing map which gives a general idea of where we will be.

we started at Noon on Boxing Day and we are nearly finished clearing the snow after a massive snowfall. And that's roughly 5 days. And that came a few weeks after the last big snowfall. And quite frankly, I'm ready to get back to my regular shifts. But the job still isn't done, we are now going to have to start hauling away a lot of the snow, which is another big job.  
 
Also what most residents don't realize, Brandon is one of the rare cities that clear driveways.

A time when the city stopped clearing the driveway for a time, shovelling out that mountain of snow sure made a 1 inch ridge pretty menial, thankful for what we have now, there were winters when my street didn't get done, keep up the good work.

they were working last night (Friday) on my street late, great work guys..you work is appreciated

It would be great if the city could do a better job of letting us know what areas they will be working. The current system simply isn't good enough. Its hard to have your cars off the street when you have no clue when they're coming.

Stuck right on the road? Where do you move your vehicle.?

JackAzz said "It would be great if the city could do a better job of letting us know what areas they will be working. The current system simply isn't good enough. Its hard to have your cars off the street when you have no clue when they're coming. "

do you propose? Keeping in mind not everyone has Twitter, Facebook, internet, read the newspaper, listen to local radio or what ever other reason. Do you want 24 hour notice? When we are done an area we move to the next and keep going and if we finish that area we move to the next.  
 
Everyone wants it done NOW!

There's all kinds of piles in my parking lot where some of it was cleared and some wasn't. Not exactly fun to drive a low bottomed car in!

Trevor B said "    JackAzz said "It would be great if the city could do a better job of letting us know what areas they will be working. The current system simply isn't good enough. Its hard to have your cars off the street when you have no clue when they're coming. " do you propose? Keeping in mind not everyone has Twitter, Facebook, internet, read the newspaper, listen to local radio or what ever other reason. Do you want 24 hour notice? When we are done an area we move to the next and keep going and if we finish that area we move to the next.     Everyone wants it done NOW! "

I think Trevor and your crews are doing a great job and we thank you for it.  
I can't find anything on the city's website that shows the schedule for snow removal and the area they will be working on (my bad if there is one).  
Yes, not everyone has social media or the internet. However, these days I think 90% of us have and that is good enough reason to get the information out via the internet or social media sites, so that we're well informed. It's not difficult to draft out a road map and schedule on the website or FB page. A simple PDF file will do. Most people also have smartphones these days. Thanks for listening.

Your parking lot? The city doesn't clear parking lots, so don't blame them. It's the responsibility of private contractors to do clearing in business/commercial lots. Kind of unfair to blame the city.

Yes thank you for the 3 foot high 3 foot wide wind row in my driveway but hey real good job on the road

The loader will be behind the grader. You will still have to shovel some, but not the whole windrow.

Loaders never showed up when they did my street and it's been 2 days.

Trevor B said "    JackAzz said "It would be great if the city could do a better job of letting us know what areas they will be working. The current system simply isn't good enough. Its hard to have your cars off the street when you have no clue when they're coming. " do you propose? Keeping in mind not everyone has Twitter, Facebook, internet, read the newspaper, listen to local radio or what ever other reason. Do you want 24 hour notice? When we are done an area we move to the next and keep going and if we finish that area we move to the next.     Everyone wants it done NOW! "

I don't have an issue with the speed its getting done but theres lots of room for improvement in notification. Not everyone has Twitter, Facebook, listens to the radio, thats true. But they would catch the majority. It would be better than what they're doing now which is basically nothing. It would help the crews. You complained that people don't move their cars so I offered a solution to improve the situation for you!

They do announce on Facebook. I saw the post they were clearing zone c and d on Thursday and since I knew I was zone d I made sure I was off the road.

I very frequently checked the updates. Not that there is much place to move my vehicle since our back alley doesn't get done, because we have front pick up. Add in that it was just plowed while I was at work and there is still massive piles of snow on the road. Just saying there can be improvements

Other than working to avoid garbage days, there is NO SCHEDULE!! So there is no schedule to post. We don't say Monday route 1, Tuesday route 2 and so forth. When doing these 24 hour plowing we just roll through the routes and zone as we finish others. No matter what day or time, other than avoiding areas where garbage collection is taking place as much as we can.  
 
We finished the residential routes Saturday afternoon, then we redid some streets because of the snowfall on Friday. The reason why we go 24 hours is to get it done as quick as we can. If we go to schedules, we manage well just stick to 8 hour shifts that way each day is a different area like on garbage days.  
 
And how fast we go depends on how much snow, equipment, man power.  
 
There is never going to be an easy way to notify EVERYONE after these snow storms. Though many times when we started on a street with cars, they quickly got moved.

Quit complaining. At least you can still get to the Post Office or Walmart or to whatever place you deem as so important to get to.

Trevor-Are the loaders working with the graders this year. For the first time in many years all of the driveways were not cleared after this storm. I thought they always worked in teams. Grader was on my street at 1 AM and when I got up for work the driveway was blocked. Just was wondering if this is a new practice so I can be prepared next time.

Has been following for a while now so it's not new. And out of the thousands that get done in a crews 12 hr shift, there's bound to be some missed. Also, we are only removing the bulk of the snow, so there will be a little left. And if it got missed just call into Street and Roads.

there are quite a few what I am going to call illegal driveways and what I mean by that is the homeowner never went thru city hall to get approval for the driveway and pay for a permit. The illegal driveways are easy to see in the summer months, they are parked on grass. Too bad that the city has to take time to clear these driveways.

also come to realise that you can't please everyone, no matter what you do.

Trevor B said "also come to realise that you can't please everyone, no matter what you do. "

amount of snow we did last week, ain't nobody happy!

By how quickly we can get around the main streets in Brandon and how quickly we can get around sidestreets. It's a thankless job for these people that are working tirelessly. If it's not fast enough for you complainers, I suggest getting a shovel or snowblower out. In the meantime wait your turn on the priority basis. Considering the large amount of snowfall I think they've worked hard round the clock enough bitchin

Don't know who was doing the loader work on 6th Street just north of Park Avenue last night but I want to say Thank You to that operator. After the grader made it's pass the loader showed up and with some awesome finesse, cleared the ends of the driveways, opened a path we had made from sidewalk to street in front of our house, backbladed snow away from the curb then scraped it up and moved it....there was not even a ridge left at the driveway. And this was at every yard we can see from our house. Whoever you are, thank you so much from a couple of VERY appreciative residents of this block.