Brakes put on snow in park

Published: March 12, 2009 6:00 PM Richard Rolke - Vernon Morning Star

This will be the last winter that road snow is dumped at a popular Greater Vernon park. The Greater Vernon Advisory Committee passed a motion Thursday banning the City of Vernon from storing snow at BX Ranch Park. “That’s not an appropriate use for a park and other alternatives must be sought,” said Leith Skinner, BX-Silver Star alternate director. GVAC staff had recommended that an agreement be signed with Vernon to allow for snow to be disposed of at the BX Road park. The city has been piling snow from its roads for a number of years, but complaints arose this winter, partly because of the large amount of snow the region has received. “There are piles of snow still 10 or 12 feet deep. The surface of the park has significant ruts,” said Skinner of the city’s trucks and tractors. BX Ranch Park is heavily used by residents walking their dogs and they have claimed that items picked up in the snow — like glass — put their animals at risk, as well as the road deicing chemicals. “It probably gets greater use than Polson Park and I don’t see the city dumping snow in Polson Park,” said Cliff Kanester, BX-Swan Lake alternate director.

That move now forces the city to determine where to place the snow that used to go to the park. Also on Thursday, directors agreed to an agreement that would see the city pile snow at the north end of Kin Race Track. However, most of that snow will actually come from the parking lots of GVAC recreation facilities. However, that move didn’t go over well with Kanester. “We should not be dumping snow in any park,” he said. Kanester made a motion to that effect, but it was tabled so Coldstream and Vernon can look at the issue of snow storage and GVAC can identify issues regarding its properties. “We need a report to look at where we can properly dump this snow,” said Mary-Jo O’Keefe, Vernon director. “We can’t just say no to the stockpiling of snow unless we want to close the streets of Greater Vernon.”