The Town of Banff will hire another part-time employee and buy additional equipment in order to do a better job of snow and ice clearing along sidewalks used by seniors between the downtown core and seniors’ residences.
At a meeting Monday (Feb. 22), council voted 3-2 to spend $24,700 for a part-time seasonal employee and $70,380 for the purchase of a sidewalk tractor rather than reallocating existing staff to this, which would mean deferring lower priority areas elsewhere in town.
Officials say there have been several complaints about snow and ice removal and this will lead to better clearing of pedestrian routes to and from Cascade House, Mount Edith House, Olympic House and the downtown core.
“Whenever we increase the level of service, there are costs involved. You just don’t get more service for the same money,” said Mayor Karen Sorensen.
“I’m not prepared to deter other work elsewhere in town for this to get done, and I want to see this work get done.”
Longtime Banff resident Mary Buckingham, who sits on the executive board of the Banff Seniors’ Society, welcomed council’s decision to place a high priority on clearing snow on the routes from seniors’ residences to the downtown area.
In November, Buckingham fell on the ice as she stepped off a sidewalk into the roadway. The accident broke her hip and she has been using crutches to get around ever since.
Buckingham said the Banff Seniors’ Society would have preferred to see work deferred elsewhere to accommodate this, instead of spending additional taxpayer dollars.
Councillor Chip Olver agreed, saying she supports making the seniors’ routes a higher priority, as many seniors are afraid to leave their home for fear of falling, but wanted to see other work deferred by the Town’s crews.
“Some people feel housebound in winter time, because they’re concerned about how devastating it would be to have a fall,” she said.
Coun. Brian Standish was opposed to the motion, noting there’s no question the Town of Banff should be addressing seniors’ concerns, but he believes this is an inefficient and ineffective use of taxpayers’ dollars.
He said this plan would primarily benefit those seniors living in Mount Edith House, Cascade House and Olympic House – about 10 per cent of Banff’s estimated 600 residents over the age of 60.
“My argument was based on fairness and equality. If we clear the sidewalks for these seniors, then we should clear the sidewalks for all the seniors,” he said.
“I see today’s vote as a kneejerk reaction. There must be a better solution. We can’t just throw money at a problem and expect it to go away.”
Along with Mayor Sorensen, Councillors Corrie DiManno and Grant Canning voted in favour. Councillors Stavros Karlos and Ted Christensen were absent from the meeting.
Sorensen praised the work of the Town of Banff’s snow clearing crews.
“There seems to be some belief system that when there’s a snow event, that we’re not operating as quickly as we should or could,” she said.
“I want to make it clear that our equipment and our snow crews, during a snow event, are out all night a lot of times trying to get to priority one areas and priority two areas.”
Marc Breau, the Town’s streets supervisor, said additional labour and a new sidewalk tractor, which is needed due to the narrow width of many of the sidewalks, would not affect current operations and timelines of snow removal.
However, he said, using existing staff to do the work would mean delays in snow removal operations elsewhere in town, including a delay in the new enhanced downtown snow removal program.
