aSchool District 54 has requested from the District of Houston to extend the snow removal route to include the end of Butler Avenue along Riverview Drive to Avalon Way and out to the turn off Equity Mine Road. This is to accommodated an additional bus route that the school district uses to ensure the safety of students.
“As the proportions of this route are not included in priority number one areas for snow removal, the snow removal policy needs to be revised to include those roads as priority number one,” stated the report.
After an accumulation of two inches of snow, priority number one roads are required snow clearing withing six to 10 hours.
“What we have to do is change our policy, and implement the specific school route in there,” said Michael Glavin, Chief Administrative Officer for the District of Houston.
Glavin explained that this route is normally done by Lake District Maintenance and the reason why the District of Houston would be taking it on is because Lakes District Maintenance can not guarantee that removal will be done during times in accordance to the snow fall and when buses are operating.
“I noticed three roads [in the illustration] Omineca Way, Poplar Street, and Dungate Drive that are not red or green [priority number one and two for snow removal] is there a policy that talks about those roads?” asked counsellor Jonathan Van Barneveld.
“I can’t answer that,” said Glavin.
“So every road should fall within either priority one or two for snow removal?” asked counsellor Van Barneveld.
“Yes,” said Glavin.
Lakes District Maintenance and the District of Houston have a cost-share agreement where snow removal routes interchange to accommodate each other.Glavin explained that Lakes District Maintenance would normally take care of snow removal along Butler Avenue and Riverview Drive to Avalon Way for the District of Houston, because they have to travel up to Equity Mine Road to snow remove there anyway.There will be no extra cost to the District of Houston.