After a day of snow plows operating only in the northern section of Swan Valley West it appears the municipality has changed its mind and will clear roads in the southern section as well.
Yesterday members of council received an email from Matt Wills saying that operators based out of Durban had been told to enjoy their weekend off even while the operators based out of Swan River were plowing roads. In the email Wills called the situation embarrassing.
Employees from the municipality confirmed to CJ104 that the information contained in the email from Wills was accurate.
Late yesterday social media was abuzz with accusations the Durban plows had actually been working and our story was a lie. A former municipal council member suggested that CJ104 may not have been accurate with news the plows were not operating. However, the plows had not been operating. A large snow bank had blocked the door of their grader shop all day and no plow had driven through it to leave the shed. No snow plow from the Durban shop operated until early Friday morning.
Plans for plowing changed at some point yesterday and one of the Durban based graders is working today. It appears information that the second plow in Durban is broken and not operating is also accurate. Sources inside the municipality say that James Webb called staff back to work to operate the machines. It is not known if Webb changed his mind on account of the email sent by Wills, or because of the news story, or because of a discussion at a special meeting last night.
Council did hold a special meeting Thursday night. The agenda included a discussion of Human Resources issues. It is the first council meeting held since Bill Gade was again suspended from council Tuesday night.
