Melfort city crews have been salting and sanding intersections after Thursday's snow. (Cam Lee/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

Snow and ice

Melfort crews attempting to deal with snow, ice on city streets

Mar 28, 2025 | 3:14 PM

The City of Melfort may not have received as much snow as first feared, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t challenges on the streets and sidewalks.

An Alberta Clipper came through the province as March comes to a close and the system brought wet snow and strong wind.

Melfort’s Director of Public Works Kalyna Cipywnyk told northeastNOW crews have been working hard to sand and salt intersections after graders pass through them.

“As per usual, intersections along priority streets (highway, downtown core, emergency routes, and school zones) are the current focus before moving into the residential areas,” Cipwynyk said via email.

Cipywynk said city crews were well-prepared for the storm and were able to clear several streets of built-up snow and ice prior to Thursday’s storm. That helped reduce the amount of snow and ice that could melt and re-freeze on city streets.

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“The remaining ice is being addressed through a combination of street scraping with the grader and application of sand and salt,” said Cipywnyk. “The near-zero temperatures that accompanied the storm have made ideal conditions for the salt to be effective, and crews have reported that the snow on well-travelled roadways is continuing to melt throughout the day.”

Despite the success of salting and sanding, Cipywnyk encouraged drivers to be careful, especially during the evenings as the temperatures decrease and the ice reforms. Pedestrians are also asked to be cautious as conditions can change rapidly with the weather.

The recent warm weather and freeze-thaw conditions have caused a few issues with catch basins being frozen over or covered. Cipwynyk said crews have been busy unblocking the catch basins and culverts of ice and other debris to accommodate the spring melt.

“We have understandably been receiving a number of calls from concerned residents about water accumulating in the streets – these issues will be addressed when the crews are available and as weather permits,” Cipywnyk said.

Cipwynyk commended the hard work of city crews this winter as they cleaned the streets, sidewalks, and parking lots across the city.

“We certainly had more snow fall than in the previous two years, and our employees rose to the occasion.”

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Cam.lee@pattisonmedia.com