By Mark Squibb | Vol 8 No. 3 (Feb 13. , 2019)
Mount Pearl is adding to it’s snow fleet.
During a Nov.26 meeting, council approved the purchase of municipal tractor from Saunders Equipment Ltd. for the bid amount of $172,421.25 (HST included).
Councillor Lucy Stoyles put forward a motion during a Feb. 4 council meeting to purchase a blower attachment for that tractor at a cost of $17,000 plus HST, in account of heavy snowfall seen this year.
Deputy Mayor Jim Locke explained that he planned to support the motion, but had reached out to Director of Infrastructure and Public Works Gerry Antle with a question earlier that day.
“My question for the Director was, given the volume of snow and the walls of snow that we have, this is sort of a smaller unit, and a smaller snowblower, so is it going to be effective in the environment we have with these six and eight foot walls. But Director Antle correctly pointed out, there are many areas in the City where snow is not the six- or eight-foot banks that we se along our thoroughfares, and this will be quite helpful in the residential areas where the banks are a little lower.”
The equipment will assist in widening the roads and clear sidewalks.
“This is a versatile piece of equipment,” explained Antle, of the tractor.
“This is used in the summer season as well. We use it for sweeping sidewalks and other areas of the City.”
