By Patrick Newhook/January 27, 2022
To salt or not to salt, that’s the question Mount Pearl Council were asking themselves.
During the end of the previous Council meeting, Mayor Dave Aker moved council into a round table. Councilor Jim Locke took the floor and began to speak about the city’s salting of trails.
According to Councilor Locke, he has seen numerous people ask about salting the winter trails in Mount Pearl.
“We don’t have an abundance of snow but that has generated some treacherous walking conditions in our trial ways. On social media people are wondering why we can’t clear snow on the trail ways or why we can’t salt our trail ways,” said Councilor Locke.
The city could start to clear the trail ways with salt, but the biggest challenge holding them back is cost
“The challenge with it is cost, we have 60 km of trails which would require addition equipment, addition resources, addition salt expenses, I haven’t seen the calculation but I would suspect the price tag for that, that’s an increased level of service, so either we would have to find more revenue which would result in a tax increase or we’d have to look at reducing level of service elsewhere,”
If council wanted to salt these trails, they would have to find the money somewhere, which would lead to cuts or new taxes. Councilor Lock also brought forward that salting trail ways could affect pet owners, who are trying to take their pets for walks.
Councilor Locke also purposed that they just leave the trail ways as is.
“There’s multiple reasons why we haven’t gone down that path,” said Councilor Locke. “Without further research I’m not prepared to purpose that we do that,”
Council has invested in trail groomers who help level the snow.
Councilor Bill Antle then spoke about he does not support salting the trails. “They’re winter use trails…I’ve talked to many residents, I was on the trail today and the first thing they said to me was ‘Bill don’t salt their trails’ a lot of them were clear, don’t salt the trails their perfect the way they are,” said Councilor Antle.
Councilor Antle also pointed out the environmental impacts, when the snow melts the salt goes into the rivers, which would impact the fish living in it.
“For the past many, many years Mount Pearl has never ever salted their trails and I think we should continue on the same route,” said Councilor Antle.
Mayor Aker followed by explaining that if the council wanted to start salting the trails, it wouldn’t be a simple move to do. “If we were to consider a change in the level of service, there’s a few hoops we’d have to go through. For example it have to go through committee, we’d have to study it, I’m not trying to make it sound so bureaucratic, but we’d have to fund it,” said Mayor Aker. “I don’t think it would change that easily overnight,”
Deputy Mayor Nicole Kieley finished the conversation by echoing similar concerns that Councilor Antle had. “I one hundred percent agree with not salting the trails specifically within areas where it’s environmentally not prudent and that ultimately when most research would look at because you’re not getting it down to pavement ground every time, it’s not that effective with regards in a way in which it’s going to do what you think it would do say on a road way or a well plowed area,” said Deputy Mayor Kieley.