The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, February 10, 1999 - A Winter’s snow putting strain on city’s budget allocation THE CITY is rapidly burning through its snow clearing budget for 1999, says director of ciginecring Stew Christensen. He said the city spent $110,000 in January — a third of its $330,000 snow clearing for the entire calendar year, That was also about double the $52,860 the city had to shell out to clear the while stuff in January, 1998, “Tr could have been a lot worse, " ‘Christensen said, “The suowfalls have been steady s sa we've And watch those roofs - beens able to do most of the work on straight lime hours and haven't had to do too much of the work on overtime hours,” Meanwhile, the pile of snow at the curling rink — where much of the snow. trucked away gels dumped — has grown to gargantuan pro- portions, “It's “as large as I've cya” seen ¢ it,” Christensen said. ‘‘It’s big.’” He said the siow dump at the farmer's market an site on Davis Ave. is also close to full. January i is usually the biggest month for snow- fall, Christensen said, Normally the city spends about t two-thirds of - its winter road maittenance budget in the begin- ning of the year, and one third at the end of the year, The money spent by the city on the winter isn’t all related to snow fall, If it freezes and roads get slippery, crews have to spread sand and salt. Those conditions. have... to be monitored by city staff. And repeated freeze-thaw cycles can create potholes in city streets that need to be fixed, Try shovelling to the night ‘THERE ARE tricks you can ‘use ta avoid shovelling more snow from the end of your driveway than ab- solutely necessary, . “Always shovel to your tight side when you’ze facing the street,’? says city director of engineering Stew Christensen. Although its easier for many people to throw snow to their left, he says, the grader comes down the right side of the street and will simply take that snow and spread it right back across your driveway, And, says Christensen, if it's a really big snowfall, you can save yourself some ‘digging by waiting until the grader has gone by. You're actually better off not to shovel the last four feet until after the grader has plowed past your driveway,’” he says. ‘It ‘helps to retain some of the ‘snow that’s on the grader’s ‘blade as it goes by.’’ If you shovel everything before the grader arrives, he explains, you'll actually get AFTER ONE particularly bad night of snow last week, Centennial Christian Schoot students decided to do something about it. Armed with shovels, the Grades 8, 9 and 10 classes spent about an hour one morning clearing out driveways of homes: surrounding their school, The gesture was appreciated by those who benefited by the. community service, One person responded by bringing cookies ta the school. a larger ridge leit by the ‘grader because the empty Spot when il comes. to yours. ‘driveway allows more: of the, faccumulated snow to come ‘off fhe blade. building inspector said lo- :cals shouldn't worry about shoveling. the snow-off their roofs yet. ae Right now the snow is He explained roofs in Ter- race shoulda’t buckle under lbe,amount of snow. that has «fallen, dene wise™ wid But Gipps can say haw Since there aren’t any build- ing inspectors in that area to enforce . the .B. c. Building Coden, 5b - heay Gipps said if a lot of rain weigh the ‘snow to gauge how much it weighs per foct. He said be will inform: - people whien or if they need News In Brief Two trucks, one week TERRACE RCMP are looking for the thief or thieves respousibie for stealing two pick up trucks from the area Jast week, The first uuck was stolen Sunday, Jan. 31 from a parking lot on Hwy16 west. The four wheel drive truck was last scen at 12:50 p.m. Sunday aflemoon. It has the words ‘Spring Creck Ageregates Ltd.’’ painted on the doors in two-tone blue lettering, carried an aluminum dry box in the back of the truck attd has the licence -plate number 184 1Y-Y; aes A second truck was taken without ils owner's knowl- edge late Thursday, Feb, 5 or early Friday, Feb. 6. It was discovered in Thornhill the next moming in the possession of an aquaintance of the owner. Man gets jail time CHRISTOPHER David Prokopchuk pled guilty to 11 charges of breaking and entering Jan. 22 and received two years and six mouths in jail. ‘The charges date back to Oct, 19, 1998 when the 19- year-old broke into a home on 4118 Yeo St. on the bench in Terrace. Prokopehuk then broke into seven more Terrace. homes before RCMP officers arrested him on Oct, 29 and booked him into the Terrace Provincial Correc- tional Centre until his next court appearance. Two days before he was to appear‘in court Nov. 20, Prokopehuk escaped and broke into three more homes in Terrace ’s horseshoe and on the Birch Avenue bench. When an off-duty correction centre guard spotted Prokopchuk near the Terrace aquatic centre, a search of the neighbourhood began and be was found coming out of the wooded area behind the Terrace courthouse. More ambulance reports THE B.C, AMBULANCE Service plans to open up the lines of communication with city council after an am- bulance here failed to drive to the address it was originally called to on Jan, 13, It also wants to get in the habit of presenting quarter- ly reporis to city council beginning Feb. 22, said city administrator Ron Poole, “They want to be mare reportable to council,’’ said Poole after meeting with an ambulance representative for 15 minutes last week. Cily officials have brought up the possibility of Ter- race operating its own dispatch service, but Poole said, that issue wasn’t really discussed. Terrace’s ambulance stalion also expects a new unit chief, Carl Wassink from Burns Lake, to arrive here this week. Cocaine guilty plea A TERRACE maa pleaded guilty in a Vancouver courtroom Feb. 1 to one charge of possession of cocaine for the purposes of trafficking. David Harry Edwardson was originally charged with seven counts under the Narcotics Control Act. All but ,one of those charges were stayed by prosecutor Brian Sedgewick. Edwardson will appear in a Vancouver courtroom for sentencing on March 15, 1999, falls, making the snow very to start shovelling snow heavy, he will measure and from their roofs. Did You Know? You don’t have fo speak French to give your child the opportunity to learn. [FRENCH IMMERSION rooftops in withstand stil very light,”’ said Paul much snow Gipps. kak kk TERRACE? $s SENIOR Thorahil can HEBB POWERTREAD TREADMILLS and exercise equipment rom Gs Northern Healthcare Gy in the Park Avenue Medical Building, Terrace Save 15t on instore reodmils with this coupon, Expires Feb 28/99 Register at Kiti’ K Shan Primary For more information call 635-3115 Britain & Europe } our Way carketh Exclusive Offers for Carlson Wagonlit Travel Rewards members: ¢ Special Pricing ¢ Double bonus points! Book between january 18 - April 30! 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