Not only have Red Deerians been dealing with extreme snowfall in the past recent months making it tough to get around the City despite the municipality’s best efforts, now citizens are facing garbage issues as regular pickups have been delayed throughout Red Deer. This could possibly drag on until the spring months.

This past winter has been one for the books, with the amount of snow we have gotten (about 125 cms to date), and with the amount of hassle the snow has brought as well.

Week after week frustrations continue to mount in the community and we as well as City Hall are certainly hearing it from citizens.

Back to the garbage issue. Red Deerians have been asked this week to put their garbage for pickup on the curb in front of their homes on their garbage day. Seventy per cent of Red Deer homes have their garbage regularly picked up in the back.

The reason for this the City says is because garbage trucks are having a tough time getting up and down the alleys as the weather continues to warm up and the snow becomes soft. Meanwhile, many alleys in the City seem just fine with small vehicles able to navigate their way through. And with the warmer temperatures of late, the situation has improved even more.

Not only is this inconvenient for most homeowners in Red Deer, it will also prove to be interesting as the City moves throughout residential areas plowing streets to grade and leaving large windrows on the side of the even numbered houses.

Now, where are those residents supposed to put their garbage?

It will also be interesting to see if the garbage trucks can get through the residential areas that have already been plowed. With vehicles parking on the cleared side of the street and with the windrow on the other, streets are often now down to one lane – and a tight one at that. Add in the fact that some residents are parking on the windrow side and a small car can barely get through never mind a large truck.

Our suggestion to this headache? Plow the back alleys down to grade if they are that much of a problem. We think citizens would understand and appreciate avoiding this frustration.

Red Deerians pay for a service and expect a certain level of service. We think plowing the alleys would be the answer.

At some point, the excuse of extreme snow goes too far. We all know we’ve had record snowfall – and we are all dealing with the impact of that.