Snow emergency in effect for C-K – updated

Chatham-Kent has declared a snow emergency until Feb. 4 at 4 p.m., so don’t park your vehicle on the street.

To allow snowplows to clear the street, there is a parking ban on streets until Wednesday afternoon.

We’ve had between 25 and 30 cm of snow fall in the municipality since Sunday morning. While the snow may be over, strong winds today will gust up to 50 km/h, causing additional drifting, and making highway and rural driving treacherous.

Dennis Chepeka, manager of Public Works North, said the snow emergency expedites his crews clearing snow off area roads.

“It really helps us out when people don’t park on the street when they don’t have to,” he said. “If it helps us out, it helps them out because we get the roads cleared a lot quicker.”

Chepeka advises citizens to be patient, as crews are working diligently to clear the streets.

“We’ve got all our equipment out,” he said, adding even a few front-end loaders have been tackling drifts that have given the plows and graders troubles.

“Things are starting to get cleaned up. It just takes time,” Chepeka said. “We had guys running around the clock yesterday. It was the wind. And the snow kept coming.”

In addition to not parking on streets for now, don’t drive unless you have to. Police report 11 abandoned vehicles and a like number of accidents across the municipality over the past 24 hours. Fortunately, no one was injured.

If you have to drive, leave extra time to get to your destination.

Municipal staff also advise residents to call ahead before visiting municipal facilities, as weather conditions are causing service delays and disruptions.

The main line for the municipality is 519-360-1998.

Here is the latest from the municipality:
• The Tilbury Municipal Centre is currently closed – incoming telephone calls to the Tilbury Office are being answered.

• Bothwell Municipal Information Desk is closed

• All other offices, including the Municipal Call Centre are open with minimal staff.

• Blenheim and Wallaceburg pools will be closed for regular scheduled daytime programming this morning. We will re-evaluate the situation at this afternoon for evening programming.

• All curbside ‎garbage and recycling collection is cancelled today (Monday February 2). Collections will resume again tomorrow (Tuesday February 3). Service will be delayed one day for everyone this week.

• Of transfer stations normally open on a Monday, the Harwich Transfer Station is open while the Wallaceburg Transfer Station is closed.

• Employment and Social Services is open, however Client Contact appointments at the Municipal Centres and the Chatham Federal Building are cancelled. Clients can call the main office at 519-351-8573 if they need to speak to a Caseworker.

• The After School Art Program at the Cultural Centre is cancelled today.