The City of Barrie is working on a program for people to track snow plows on residential streets, not in real time but pretty close to it.
Dave Friary, Director of Roads, Parks and Fleet says there's still work to be done including mapping, testing and a review by city staff.
"We are investing in it and would like to have it in place to assist our residents asap," said Friary. "It would be similar to the Ministry of Transportation's trackmyplow.com."
Barrie plows have already been out on the roads more this season than all of last.
"In the winter of 2015-2016 we had the residential plows out 15 times and this year already in the winter of 2016-2017, if you count last night, we've been out 17 times already and we've still got a lot of winter left," said Friary.
The threshold for calling out the plows is 8 cms of snow which gives you an idea of just how much has fallen.
Friary says people forget what a real winter is like and the timing of recent snowfalls have posed a challenge.
"It seems the squalls are hitting just as we're finishing our route. We're getting squalls around 5 to 7 a.m. coming through much like ths morning. By then our guys are just finishing their routes so people will get up in the morning and they'll look at their road or their driveway and say plows haven't even been by yet but in fact we have."
Trucks are equipped with GPS which allows the city to confirm where and exactly when plows have been in front of your house.
"I know people get frustrated but this is Barrie and it's Central Ontario," said Friary. "We live in a snow belt and this year seems to be one where we're getting hammered a little bit more than what we're used to in the last couple of years."
The amount of snow the city gets can be related to the amount of complaints with some of the top beefs being unplowed streets, ruts and grooves on roads from solidified snow and filled-in driveways.
Friary believes the city will go over budget this year but the extra will be covered by a reserve fund.
