Merulla calls for refund from private plows after public complaints

Hamilton City Councillor Sam Merulla is calling for refunds after several city side streets went unplowed for hours, even days, following a heavy snow fall on Wednesday.

"I think we should be looking at refunds or some kind of compensation. We've paid for a service that wasn't delivered," he said.

Merulla estimated he received over 100 complaints from constituents whose streets had not been plowedas recently asMonday morning. The complaints have spurred the city to investigate their snow plow services.

Merulla believed the inconsistencies were likely due to the private contracted plows.

"I believe it's more to do with the contractors than the public sector. The public sector went above and beyond and went into areas to clear where contractors hadn't."

He stressed the public works department should be thorough with their review in order to fix the problems and prevent a similar interruption in service, which he described as "one of the worst snow removal events in recent history."

Much like the snow quickly accumulated during Boxing Day's winter blast, it was likely several small incidents that built up andled toinefficient snow plow service,one city officialsaid.

"There were no major gaps, just minor issues that converged to create a gap in service," Bryan Shynal, the director of operations for public works, said.

"Things like perhaps a lot of cars parked on narrow streets or snow blowing off people's property onto the street. It only creates a minor issue for a block or two, but it adds up."

He also noted the city has employed some new private contractor plows, who might have been confused on their routes. Shynal and Darrell Smith, manager of roads operations andmaintenance, planto meet Wednesday morning to goover thedata from last week's service. They plan to deliver some explanations as to what went wrong the following Monday, as well as recommendations for improving service.

The city owns 110 plows and contracts over 300 private plows to keep the streets cleared. On Wednesday, the city was blanketed in 13 cm of snow, with even higher accumulation in some areas, leading to snow-packed streets.