Editor: On Thursday, Nov. 21 I emailed to mayor and council my concerns regarding snow removal from Banff streets after Tuesday’s snowfall. The following sentence was contained in that letter.
Editor:
On Thursday, Nov. 21 I emailed to mayor and council my concerns regarding snow removal from Banff streets after Tuesday’s snowfall. The following sentence was contained in that letter. “When I dropped my five-year-old sweetie pie off at kindergarten this morning, I noted that the drop-off area on Squirrel Street (beside the elementary school) was still a choked-with-snow nightmare. This area should be at the top of the priority list as regards snow removal. ”
It wasn’t until Monday morning, six days after Tuesday’s snowfall, that the Town began to remove the snow on the Squirrel Street side of the school, where scores of young students are dropped off from their caregiver’s cars. When the father of my little sweetie pie attempted to drop her off at approximately 8:25 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 25 he found that, in addition to the usual congestion, he had to navigate the windrow that had been piled up in the centre of the street by the grader, front-end loader and bobcat that were then aggressively rearranging the snow so that trucks could remove it. On school days the street here is always clogged around 8:30 a.m. with the cars of parents dropping their children off at school. Town officials could not have chosen a worse time, as this is the busiest time of every school day. On this day Town officials worsened the already congested and, consequently, dangerous conditions.
Snow removal from the streets adjacent to the elementary school, the high school and the daycare should be right at the top of the priority list - but not until after 9 a.m. when the vast majority of students are already safe in their classrooms
As regards the Squirrel Street side of the elementary school - the side of the street closest to the school should be a no parking area between the hours of 8 a.m. and 9 a.m on school days in order to make it safer for parents to drop their children off. Currently there are at least three vehicles that haven’t moved since before the most recent storm.
I must also mention that, frequently, the handicapped parking stalls at the Banff Safeway are two of the most slippery parking spots in town.
Jon Whelan,
Banff
