Renfrew Town Council will be bringing in the cavalry to help once the snow starts falling.
Council agreed to recruit two short-term employees to fill the gaps in their roster of winter plow operators, which acting CAO Kelly Latendresse says will be unable to cover certain sidewalk routes, parking lots, and dead ends without new hires.
Plow operators in Renfrew clear over 136 lane kilometres of roads in just a single pass of town during a snow event, with some roads requiring multiple passes due to drifting snow or additional accumulation.
Maintaining the five major routes in town is an operation that requires a lot of dedicated attention, even during stretches without snow.
Renfrew was fortunate enough to not need as many man hours during what was an unusually docile winter last year, but Latendresse says that’s a risk the town should take a second time.
Council did raise concerns over whether the jobs would be posted in time to find the right people for the jobs, but Latendresse admitted that she and her team had done the required background work to be able to start looking as soon as councillors signed off on the search.
(written by Kasey Egan)
