ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — St. John’s is adding downtown sidewalk snowclearing routes, and extending the snowclearing season this year.
At the regular meeting of council Tuesday evening, council unanimously approved a bid for snowclearing and ice control in downtown and area sidewalks. Complete Management Ltd. had the lowest bid and got the contract for $293,730.27.
That contract is for Nov. 1 to April 30, an extension of one month over last year’s contract, which went to March 31.
In addition to the downtown area sidewalks that were cleared last year, the city is adding the north side of Water Street from Spingdale Street to Topsail Road, the north side of New Gower Street from Barter’s Hill to Hamilton Avenue, and the Linegar Avenue school zone.
“We’re slowly but surely making enhancements to our sidewalk snowclearing,” said Coun. Dave Lane.
While snowclearing falls under Coun. Ian Froude’s portfolio, Lane spoke on the matter in Froude’s absence.
Lane noted the increase in contract price from roughly $70,000 in 2015 to just under $100,000 in 2019, and another increase for the coming year.
“There’s a jump there. It’s all within our budget, and of course it is the lowest bid, but it’s for a higher level of service, and these are important areas of the town as well that get a lot of traffic — foot traffic in particular — and part of our longer-term strategy we have to improve our sidewalk clearing throughout the city.”
Lane said the city wanted to increase the length of the contract to ensure sidewalks are cleared in the event of snowfalls late in the season, because “if we’re not getting the sidewalks cleared that really impacts people’s lives, so we just want to make sure we’re prepared for that.”
Twitter: @juanitamercer_
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