Faster snow removal needed: councillor

By Rick Vanderlinde Simcoe.com Dec 22, 2010
INNISFIL – Innisfil Heights businesses need snow cleared quickly to keep the wheels of industry turning, Coun. Bill Lougheed says.
Tractor trailers were getting stuck in the business park during December snowstorms hurting on-time delivery for local businesses, Lougheed said.
“It was chaos in there,” he told council. “These businesses rely on these trucks to get in and out to do business.”
Lougheed asked council to bump the area up on the snow removal priority list, especially when storms hit.
Town staff is studying the issue and will report back to council in January.
“There’s about eight kilometres of road in there. It won’t take a lot to pump up the priority level without impacting anywhere else,” Lougheed said.
A spokesperson for the 400 Industrial Business Association told council snowstorms such as one on Dec. 8 have huge impact on commerce.
“There were major difficulties for tractor trailers in there,” he said. “They were getting stuck and blocking the roads. It creates extra costs and impacts customers waiting for truck delivery.”
There are four transportation companies housed in the industrial park that operate more than 100 tractor trailers.
“All of these businesses rely on the smooth and orderly movement of tractor trailer units in order to sustain the economic viability of their businesses,” Lougheed said.
Lougheed said business owners lobbied him over snow removal while he was campaigning in the summer.
“This is not something that has just come up,” he said. “It was mentioned to me many times in the middle of summer.”