At the March 8 Lake of Bays Council meeting, Mayor Terry Glover asked superintendent of public works Steve Peace for an update on the latest storm event which impacted the area.
“I wanted council and the public to be well aware of the fact that this storm event we had with the freezing rain over the roads, and our trucks with chains on it and how severe that actually was,” he said. “As I understand it, this is the worst storm anyone can remember in 40 years and that on top of the frozen culvert situation – it’s been very exciting, and we sure appreciate what you’ve done…”
Peace referred to the storm event which started on Tuesday, February 22, as unprecedented.
“I’ve spoken to some long-term Township employees, and past employees, and nobody has seen conditions like that in their time here.” Peace said there is one Township employee who is approaching 47 years with the municipality “and he hasn’t seen conditions like that.”
He said rain, then freezing rain as temperatures drastically dropped overnight, created solid layers of extremely hard ice. “The tire chains on our equipment weren’t even making a mark in that ice, in some locations,” added Peace. “We did what we could, and we thank the public and residents of Lake of Bays for bearing with us while we struggled through and got things done. We’re making some changes moving forward so we can attack this if it happens again.”
Glover said councillors heard from many residents who had problems with mobility, some cars and trailers jack-knifed on the ice, Township trucks could not get through and a culvert also froze. “It was pretty wild so thank you very much to our roads crew for being out there and doing their best with what we’ve got, and we sure appreciate everything you’ve done so thank you for that.”
Both the Town of Huntsville and District of Muskoka declared a significant weather event as crews tried to address treacherous icy road conditions. At its January 24, 2022 meeting, Huntsville council approved a motion giving staff the ability to declare such events.
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I thought the township did a pretty good job with the roads in this case. I know memory is imperfect but I’d suggest that I’ve seen as bad or worse in the last 50 years but with one big difference. This difference is that in years not too far back, there were a lot less people living all over the community and trying to travel like a normal day every day. This extra traffic added to the much expanded road maintenance area that grows every year, makes the job harder to accomplish each year from one perspective.
From another viewpoint the equipment the township has today is vastly superior to anything they had years back. Bigger, more capable equipment with much enhance support facilities should make the job a little easier, at least from that viewpoint. They have managed to scrape most of the ice up as of this week and I can even see portions of that good old yellow line in places so progress is happening.
The time to prevent frozen culverts is the summer! Ditch maintenance and clearing is sadly lacking in many areas and if this is not kept up, then culverts fill with crud and freeze up more easily. I think that the current road sweeping program in the spring is one of the worst contributors to this issue. The way this is done is almost a waste of time and money as far as proper drainage is concerned.
Spring will be here before you know it anyway.