It looks like the City of Grande Prairie’s driveway windrow clearing program may be sticking around. On day two of budget talks, the program was on the chopping block as the city asked for the program’s full $350,000 in funding to be removed.
Councillor Jackie Clayton is against ending a program she considers a success.
“I would not support the removal of this… Although some snow falls over the course of the season aren’t heavy, last year was a good example of trying a pilot project and seeing success from it. I think that this project was executed well and the community was happy with it.”
The program was first started by the city in December 2017. An extra piece of equipment follows plows to remove the windrows from the end of people’s driveways that were previously left behind.
Councillor Dylan Bressey is also not in favour of ending a program he says people have come to expect.
“I think this is something that our citizens expect and we can’t take away from them now… I think it’s worth putting out to council that this is one reason that the budget is going up. That is 100 per cent our fault, not administrations, that we need to raise the budget a little bit this year in order to do a service that we added.”
While city council has voted to keep the program in the budget at this point, it will still need to be approved at a future council meeting. Budget talks will continue Friday morning at 9 a.m. at City Hall.