(rdnewsNOW file photo)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

Sylvan Lake

Snow & Ice control, Adopt a Spot, and Pogadl Park update

Mar 30, 2019 | 11:40 AM

The Town of Sylvan Lake is tweaking its Snow and Ice Control policy to better deal with accumulations that don’t necessarily meet the plowing trigger.

Council voted this week to add what is called a seasonal trigger, which gives the head of public works the ability to call for a plow of residential streets before certain thresholds are reached.

“For example, late this year, there was significant snow on the roads, but the trigger hadn’t been reached yet. We were receiving significant volumes of requests asking for plowing operations (in residential areas),” says John Watson, Public Works Operations Manager, who says the area saw a typical winter in terms of snow.

The current trigger for plowing residential streets is 50 cm of accumulation, then again every 50 cm, or when a single snowfall exceeds 30 cm.

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Three years ago, the Town also began a pilot using a beet juice product as a pre-wetting agent.

“Prior to a snowstorm, we pre-wet key areas of town, so hills, intersections, school zones, and then when it finally does snow, we follow it up with salt and sand, and the beet juice makes the salt more effective,” explains Watson.

“We’re seeing improvement in those areas, but it’s subtle. We’re continuing to evaluate it and other products out there for pre-wetting agents.”

That and several other ideas for the Snow and Ice Control policy, such as changes to where snow is hauled or stored, discontinuing hauling snow piles from the centres of cul-de-sacs, and changing triggers and targets, will all be on the table going forward.

Residents can provide feedback on those ideas at an open house planned for later this spring. There will also be an info booth at the May 11 Home and Lifestyle Show.

— Adopt a Spot

Town council has also approved a new program that should help clean up litter on Sylvan Lake’s streets, trails and shoreline.

The Adopt a Spot Litter Control Program is open to any community group that is willing to commit to three clean-ups a year for two years — once in each season except for winter.

The program is free to participate in and the Town will pay to erect two signs near the adopted area to honour the group doing the cleaning.

Watson says the program offers an opportunity to promote civic pride.

“For sure we see a lot of tourists in town and there are times of day, particularly in the morning before crews are out cleaning, that litter is a problem,” Watson says. “But generally speaking, litter is not significant throughout town, although along the lakefront, simply because of the amount of people who use it, we do get significant amounts of complaints about litter and we commit significant resources to keep it clear.”

The program will have reoccurring annual costs of $2600 to pay for items such as safety vests, caution signage, bags and tongs.

— Pogadl Park

Finally, council has approved a contract to complete the landscape design for the future Pogadl sports park.

An agreement has been made with Edmonton-based Select Engineering Consultants for just over $249,000. The Town received seven proposals ranging from $168,000 to $327,000 for the phase one landscape design.

Joanne Gaudet, Town communications officer, says this design will look at things like grading and underground utilities.

“The next step is to meet with the consultant,” she explains.

“For the last, at least five years, our council has identified in their strategic plan that the baseball diamond is a priority, simply because the space it’s in now, adjacent to an arterial road as well as residential development, both inhibiting its expansion, it’s really at a point where we need to grow it for our community.”

The conceptual design released in December identifies that two baseball diamonds (one small and one large), as well as four softball diamonds will be installed.

Those are expected to be ready for 2021, while the other amenities like an outdoor rink, bike park, and soccer fields are projected for completion six years from now.

More information is at Sylvanlake.ca/sportspark.