City of Lacombe Council will be considering the enhancement of snow removal service for the roads within city limits. 

Currently, the cost of hauling snow off-site will cost the city an additional $73,600 which may result in a possible 0.5% tax increase for the 2020 operating budget. 

However, Chief Administrative Officer Matthew Goudy says snow removal hasn’t been a primary concern for Lacombe’s citizens this year. 

“Every year I see some requests for enhanced snow removal. I can’t say that those this year have been particularly loud or persistent, but certainly, we are always looking for ways we can deliver the service better,” explained Goudy who believes the city has found the right balance between cost and level of service. 

The benefit of eliminating windrowed snow would be that some of the salt and contaminates would cause less damage to city property. 

“This last year, we repainted the utility poles along Woodland Drive—several thousand dollars. I don’t think that anyone would suggest that the fence along Highway 2A has increased in appearance now that it is all rusted and whatnot primarily because of the salt off of the removal,” explained City of Lacombe Mayor, Grant Creasey. 

However, the time to look into the viability of Lacombe’s current snow dumpsites is now, as the city decommissions wastewater lagoons and is currently looking for better uses for them. 

Council's current plan is to repurpose Cell 10 at the Lagoons Site. Photo courtesy of Lacombe City Council agenda for January 13th. 

“It’s the perfect time to be looking at this because we need to find a good use for that lagoon which is not amendable to all uses. You can’t just build residential homes on there, for example, but using it for something like this actually utilizes it for both purposes. We’ve reclaimed the lagoon, and made it something useful for the municipality,” said Goudy. 

Repurposing the lagoon is estimated to cost $500,000 but, in the future, it may become a necessary update.  

As of now, Lacombe’s current snow dump sites meet all regulations but are below the levels for recommendation by Alberta Environment and Parks (AEP). To meet the standards of AEP, Goudy says council will have to consider the outflow and potential contaminants of the run-off and neighbours nearby. 

Raising taxes is not necessarily in the council’s agenda as they try to maintain property taxes near inflation rates. After much debate in December, the council decided on a 0.9% increase while cutting funding to many of the city’s organizations and services. 

Although Creasey looks forward to the prospect of providing better service to the Cit,y he is apprehensive about the associated costs. 

“I see this as a great start to somewhere I think we can have a real positive impact in the community. I would like to try to see if we can whittle that number down somewhere from where it’s at right now,” said Creasey.  

It doesn’t appear as though Lacombe City Council will easily settle on another tax rate increase, but some alternative solutions will need to be considered as council members weigh out their options.