Local municipalities are saving fuel and effort so far this winter as a lack of moisture in the form of snow continues to elude the community and entire M.D.
Superintendent of public works for the town, Ron Smith says that they are saving dollars on fuel and wear and tear on equipment because their equipment has hardly been out this season.
Smith says the staff normally working on clearing streets are being kept busy working on repairing barricades, working on water treatment and other duties.
Normally in the winter the town operates one grader, a snow blower and two trucks to haul away snow with another truck used for spreading sand on slippery streets.
Main Street has been cleaned of snow only once this season, says Smith and altogether the snow crews have been out only twice. That’s very unusual . . .“that’s for sure” adds the superintendent who says he is hoping “for a good shot of snow” for the grass in the parks and also for the farmers and generally economy. The town crew is responsible for cleaning snow off of approximately 13 kms of roads and avenues including a portion of Highway 899.
Meanwhile head of weather and crop surveillance for the Canadian Wheat Board, Bruce Burnett reports that “We eclipsed records for low precipitation in much of Saskatchewan and in southern Alberta for 2001. Anyway you look at it, there has been a record breaking drought in a number of locations.”
Southern Alberta has been hardest hit with two years of record low precipitation. In 2000 only 7.1 inches of moisture was recorded which broke a 1918 record of 7.6 inches. In 2001 the record was broken again with only 6.5 inches. Normal precipitation for Lethbridge is 15.7 inches.
The lack of soil moisture over such a broad region is a big worry heading into the 2002 growing season says Burnett. “Even with average precipitation, the prairie crop is likely to be below average.We need a lot of precipitation to overcome the current deficit.”
For more story see The Provost News Jan. 16 issue.
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