Municipalities prepare for spring clean-up

BY ELYSE AMEND

elyse.amend@transcontinental.ca

For many people, spring is a time to clean out the closets, wash the walls, and reorganize the rooms. Local municipalities are also waiting to get their spring cleaning crews to work, and hope this week’s weather forecast helps speed things along.

“We’re almost 10 days behind from previous years, simply because of the snow,” said Beaconsfield Mayor Bob Benedetti last week, pointing out public works has not been able to take down the boards at the city’s hockey rinks because there is still too much of the white stuff on the ground.

With temperatures projected to near the 20-degree mark by the end of the week, Benedetti said he hopes workers will be able to start cleaning up the sidewalks, bike paths, and, eventually, the sports fields. However, Beaconsfield’s water truck and two street sweepers have already started cleaning up the sand, gravel, and other debris winter left over on the city’s streets.

“They’re out day and night,” Benedetti said.

Snow will likely also cause the parks in the Pierrefonds/Roxboro borough to open later this year, according to communication director Johanne Palladini.

“They’ll probably open a bit later, because of the snow and the time (the ground) will take to dry,” she said. Pierrefonds/Roxboro public works has been chopping up and spreading the snow still covering the borough’s bike paths around to help it melt faster, Palladini said, adding they hope to get started on other spring cleaning tasks this week.

“We’re definitely behind,” she said. “Last year in April, everything was almost ready, (except for) the parks. We’re at least two to three weeks behind now.”

The situation is very much the same in Dollard des Ormeaux: while the city is also “several weeks behind,” according to public works director Mark Gervais, the street and sidewalk sweepers are out and crews are getting ready to get into the parks.

“As soon as the snow banks are down, we’ll get into the parks and clean up everything that’s been blown around all winter,” Gervais said. “Playing fields and whatnot are certainly going to be pushed back a week. The provincial transport ministry has moved back the ‘dégel’ (spring thaw) date a week to May 24. Things are being pushed back everywhere.”

While Gervais said it seems Dollard has been spared so far, it looks like new graffiti has also started popping up in both Beaconsfield and Pierrefonds/Roxboro with the warmer temperatures.

“It’s already starting to appear. There are a few favourite spots,” Benedetti said, adding the city will be cleaning the spray paint off its public buildings and is asking private owners to do the same on their properties.

Last week, the City of Montreal announced they will spend $1 million to clean up graffiti of its buildings, and Palladini said she expects Pierrefonds/Roxboro will also get some of the funds. Last year, the borough spent $30,000 on the ‘war on graffiti.’

“Now, a lot of them are coming back, so we will have another blitz later on,” Palladini said.

She also mentioned the City of Montreal will soon be announcing a new campaign inviting citizens to do their part in the spring cleaning process, by asking them to tidy up their properties. Beaconsfield is also appealing to its residents.

“In Contact (the municipal magazine) we’ve asked people to keep their properties clean,” Benedetti said.