(Huntsville, ON) Winter operations are incredibly complex and deeply impacted by external factors, including the growth of Huntsville and changing weather patterns. As the cold weather approaches, the Town of Huntsville is sharing information on how residents and Town staff can work together to help ensure efficient winter operations through best practices and community awareness. 

How You Can Do Your Part
The Town’s winter operations deeply impact the community – and vice versa. There are many ways residents can help keep the Town’s plows on time and on task. As the winter weather approaches, please consider the following: 

• Overnight street parking (from 12 to 6 a.m.) is prohibited on Town roads in Huntsville from November 1 to April 15. Vehicles parked in violation could be towed.
• Avoid parking in Town parking lots overnight as this is the only time we can remove snow from the lots. More effective snow clearing operations in our parking lots will provide more parking spaces during the day.   
• Keep garbage cans and bins off the right of way and road allowances, and ensure garbage cans are not on the road on garbage day. 
• Do not shovel, blow or plow snow out onto a public roadway. This is illegal under the Ontario Highway Traffic Act, and a fine is possible. In addition, clearing a small section of the snowbank before your driveway will help minimize any snow pushed onto your driveway from the plow. 

“Snow plowing and removal is critical to the daily lives of all Huntsville residents, and there are times when our plows escort ambulances and fire trucks to emergencies,” shares Randy Bissonette, Director of Operations for the Town of Huntsville. “Our plow truck drivers are our lifeline, especially during significant winter weather events, so it’s important we all do what we can to help them do their jobs and be as efficient as possible.” 

Investing in the Future of Winter Operations
The Town of Huntsville’s Operations Department continuously reviews its winter operations and makes changes to improve its service and strengthen the investment into winter road maintenance.  

This year, the Town of Huntsville has added a new full-time role to the Operations Department to help monitor standards and improve the efficiency of winter road operations. The new patrol role will provide timely road-specific condition reports to the Operations Department to help allocate resources where they are needed most. This role will also ticket vehicles that are parked illegally and are inhibiting the Town’s winter maintenance operations. Previously, the Town’s plow drivers had to stop their route and exit their trucks to ticket these vehicles. With this new role, the Town’s plow truck drivers will be able to focus solely on clearing the road this winter.  

In addition, the Town of Huntsville will have four new plow trucks this winter to replace plow trucks that are at the end of their lifecycle. Council expedited the order of these units to improve service to the community by providing more reliable resources to the Town’s Operations department. These plows will play a critical role in daily winter roads operations and during significant weather events. 

Winter Operations 101
From November 1 to April 15, the Town of Huntsville plows, sands, salts and removes snow more than 400 km of roads and 30 kms of sidewalk. This includes 10 plow routes and on average, each route takes eight to nine hours to complete. When the weather clears, the Town moves from plowing operations to snow removal, taking away the large banks that accumulate on the roadside.  

Here’s what residents can expect from the Town with regards to plowing: 

• Town standards for plowing: All the roads in the Town of Huntsville are individually assessed and designated a class based on the traffic volume and speed limit. The class of the road sets the provincially regulated Minimum Maintenance Standards which dictate how much snow can be on the road before plows are sent out. Also, highways and district roads in the Town of Huntsville are not plowed by the Town. This means that when there are significant weather events elsewhere in the District of Muskoka and an emergency is declared, the Minimum Maintenance Standards for district roads in Huntsville change. 
• Plow routes change: Residents may grow accustomed to the time of day the plow drives by. Each year, the Town reevaluates the plow routes to ensure greater efficiency. This means that residents may notice the plow drives by at a different time this winter.
• Timing of plowing: Every plow route has a start and an end. This means that inevitably, someone’s house is the last to see a plow drive by. However, Town plows are equipped with a GPS. That means at the end of a shift, the new driver starts the route where the previous truck left off to ensure equal service for all addresses on the plow route.
• Snow storage areas: Some of the Town roads have a paved shoulder to help store snow during the winter. Snow storage areas are essential in higher density areas where banks can grow high throughout the winter. While residents may use them similarly to sidewalks from spring to fall, these shoulders will not be maintained like a sidewalk throughout the winter. 

Pictured: A line of Town of Huntsville plows ready to deploy to routes and remove snow.

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For more information, contact:
communications@huntsville.ca