Snow Removal

Contact Information:

Public Works E-mail: Works Shop Phone: 863-2777

The Town of Antigonish Public Works Department urges motorists, residents and children to exercise caution and patience as snow plowing and removal activities take place this winter season. Public Works also advises residents of the following policies and/or regulations with respect to snow removal activity within the Town.

Parking Regulations
Winter parking regulations extend from Dec. 01 to Apr. 15 of each winter season and restrict vehicles being left at the roadside through the night. Removal of vehicles from streets, parking lots and sidewalks greatly assists with providing effective snow removal service when it becomes necessary to plow and salt streets. Should vehicles be left on streets beyond designated times of the day, they are subject to fines and being towed away at the owner’s expense.

Streets
Residents are advised that following a major snow fall, priority is first given to making the main thoroughfares passable for emergency vehicle access. Accordingly, concentration of snow removal is given to arterial streets such as Main, West, Church and Hawthorne, followed by collector streets such as Highland, Braemore, Brookland and Xavier. Once these efforts are reasonably complete, workcrews will move to subdivision areas to increase snow clearing activities and to generally commence widening exercises throughout the Town. Residents are also reminded shoveling, plowing, snow blowing or otherwise depositing snow onto Town streets is prohibited under the Towns Snow Removal Bylaw.

Sidewalks
Where streets have sidewalks, snow clearing from streets naturally fills in sidewalks, as do the efforts of residents as they clear their driveways. Similar to street clearing work, sidewalks are cleared according to an established routing schedule, with priority being given to sidewalks which predominantly handle school children walking to schools. When extreme weather conditions prevail, one sidewalk per street will be cleared according to the area of priority, before opening the second sidewalk. Sidewalk clearing will also generally occur after street clearing activity has been commenced.

Driveways
It is not the intention of plow operators to purposely fill in residential driveways with snow. However, various competing objects such as trees, power poles, fences, hedges and multiple adjacent driveways all increase the challenges faced by the operators to place snow along the edges of the Town’s streets. In addition, when vehicles block streets or are not fully parked in driveways the amount of snow material left along streets becomes unbalanced and results in non-uniform placement of the plowed snow along the streets. Reasonable efforts are made by the operators to lessen the amount material that falls into driveways, where possible, but their main priority is having streets accessible.

Accumulating Snow and Removal
With continuous snowfalls, as we have experienced over the past several years, there is need to push snow well back from the curb area and on onto various residential lawns. This is required for additional space for snow storage, as well as access to available storm drainage and local fire hydrants. Efforts are being made to remove snowbanks from various areas of Town, on a priority basis. This work is generally limited to the downtown business core area, selected intersections, and various sharp street curves within subdivisions. The extent of these removals is all subject to available budgets.

Safety
As snowbanks are increased in height by plowing activity and/or are being removed by heavy equipment, there is a tendency for children to gather, watch and play as work is undertaken. Caution should be exercised by children to stay off materials as the banked snow is loose and unstable. Care should also be exercised by children not to build tunnels in banked materials as snowplow operators are unable to see children under these conditions and at times hoods worn by children muffle the sound of approaching snow removal equipment.

Your continued cooperation and patience are much appreciated during these winter conditions.