Saint John snow clearing report goes to council Monday

A report from the man in charge of Saint John's snow removal goes to city council Monday and it's expected to lay blame for slow snow clearing on budget cuts.

Kevin Rice is the author of the report andsays budget cuts from 2012 eliminated three snow plows from service.

"When you lose equipment, it stands to reason that you're going to have less service in one location than you're used to," he said.

Saint John residents are still reeling from the last month of constant winter storms andSunday's blast isn't helping alleviate concerns about snow clearing on some city streets.

Before the latest storm hit overnight, Saint John streets were showing improvement, thanks to a two-week break between major storms and some recent melting temperatures.

The city has been out to shave banks and widen lanes, but motorists on side streets are still seeing problems.

Side streets like Summer Street are still choked down to a single lane with the cityunable to clear snowbanks and widen streets in many residential areas.

Two weeks ago, Councillor Ray Strowbridge wanted to know why side streets were taking so long to clean up.

"We've received a lot of complaints just on timely service," said Strowbridge.

Tom Splane, who lives at the bottom of Centre Street on Saint John's west side, says city service is so slow, he often plows the street with his own truck.

"For whatever reason they don't plow all the way down [the street]," said Splane.

"The neighbours are getting stuck and so as a neighbourly thing, I'll drop the blade and plow down."