The new plow areas are highlighted in green.

Hub Staff

Winter is coming and Saugeen Shores councillors have approved a fourth trackless sidewalk plow that will hit locations various locations in Saugeen Shores. Among them are Wellington Street from River to Devonshire, on Oakwood Drive through to Wellington, Beiner and Sumpton West Street locations, the subdivision from Ivings Drive through to Bruce Street and the Trillium Drive area.

The purchase of the M7 Series Trackless Sidewalk Plow will cost an estimated $130,000 through tender which will be paid from the Development Charges Reserve.

During the September 25 Committee of Whole, Saugeen Shores Director of Public Works and Engineering, Amanda Froese said that Trackless Sidewalk Plows can plow 10 kilometres of sidewalk effectively. Currently the Town of Saugeen Shores uses two sidewalk plows in Port Elgin and one in Southampton.

Froese said the plow will “link” the new paths with existing plow routes and new locations were based on requests from community members.

Vice-Deputy Mayor Diane Huber said the current machines work great but was concerned with the machines’ effectiveness on corners. “Where there is a change in the grade... what often happens is the plow does a great job on a sidewalk then it hits the corner where you have to get off the sidewalk and cross the street and get on another sidewalk and it’s just a pile of slush and mess. So if you could somehow work into some of the plowing that there’s particular attention given to strategic corners,” requested Huber, adding that it works well on straightaways.

Deputy Mayor Luke Charbonneau was happy with the news and called it a “great news story” after years of receiving requests and complaints from community members. Charbonneau noted that per Downtown Community Improvement Plans, projecting signs have not been installed because the current sidewalk machines would not fit comfortably under the signage, and hoped that a new low would be short enough to work with standard height of projecting signs in downtown core areas.