council preview Dummy
By John Swartz
Orillia council has a special meeting February 20 at 2 p.m. The agenda has one item with the accompanying motion for council to approve spending $66,000 on four sidewalk snow blowers (funding from the fleet and equipment asset management reserve), and to approve $350K for a loader mounted blower (funding from the capital levy reserve and the environmental obligatory reserve fund).
There is also direction in the motion for staff to report at the end of winter on how the City responded to snow clearing and a recommendation to transfer funds from the winter control reserve to offset any negative variances if required.
Staff say many line items of their budget have already been spent, and they need a budget increase for salting, fuel, vehicle parts, and to hire contractors to supplement operations staff.
On the direction to report later and a budget increase, the winter control reserve currently has a balance of $562K. The amount to transfer is dependent on how much the approved budget is overspent. The other two amounts will come for different reserves because they are equipment replacements that were planned, just not for this moment.
The City has 8 sidewalk machines, 5 of which have blowers and 4 of those are 8 years old. The life expectancy of the blowers is 5 years, so replacement is due. Staff are planning to replace them with blowers capable of blowing the snow into trucks for the snow to be carted away instead of only being able to pile the snow on boulevards.
The City currently has 2 tractor/blower units and the snow by=law prioritizes the downtown, Memorial and University Avenues, and West Street for service. This assumes dealing with snow banks on other streets can occur between snowstorms. The budget for this operation is $179K and since storms seem to be running back to back the ability to take care of other roads is hampered by the budget.
2024 was kind to the snow clearing budget and staff have not finalized the accounting, but are suggesting council approve sending any surplus balance from 2024 to the winter control reserve.
However there is a self-imposed limit for the winter control reserve balance to 30% of annual budgeted amounts (averaged over 5 years). This means any annual surplus destined for reserves gets split into many accounts if the winter control reserve reaches a balance amounting to 30% of the snow removal budget. Staff are suggesting this year that limitation be waived.
The problem with the sidewalk machines is age, they breakdown and are slower because they aren’t capable of throwing the snow into a dump truck. Staff say they have a line on machines which can be bought and put into service within 10 days, if they are allowed to bypass the normal purchasing process.
The tractor/blower would be an addition to the equipment stock and not a replacement. Staff say they can then address snowbanks at intersections, school drop off zones and some residential streets. They also say they can get it into service within 10 days if normal purchasing practice is waived.
The total 2025 budget for snow is $1.9 million. Staff estimate they will need $530K more ($225K for contracting additional machines and operators; $215K for salt; and $60K for fuel).
It is important to note the snow budget is for the calendar year and next November and December count, so staff are basing their request on the experience so far this winter. When budgets are created they look at the past 5 years of budgeting experience.
Council meetings are open to the public or can be watched on the City’s Youtube channel.
(Photos by Swartz – SUNonline/Orillia)
