{"id":36913,"date":"2025-10-02T14:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T18:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=36913"},"modified":"2025-10-09T15:13:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T19:13:27","slug":"windrow-clearing-pilot-will-continue-with-increased-user-cost-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/windrow-clearing-pilot-will-continue-with-increased-user-cost-subsidies\/","title":{"rendered":"Windrow clearing pilot will continue with increased user cost, subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aurora\u2019s windrow removal pilot program will continue into this coming winter \u2013 with an increased price per household, and subsidies to help others make ends meet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council last week formally gave the green light to extend the pilot program another year, helping seniors and those living with disabilities to clear the ends of their driveways of pesky banks of snow left by passing street snowplows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upcoming winter season will see the program made available to local seniors aged 65+ at a cost of $200 per household, with subsidies available to residents living with disabilities and seniors in the same age bracket who fall under the low-income threshold as set by the Federal government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision came after recent talks which explored the possibility of providing reimbursements to qualified residents who might book a private windrow-clearing\/plowing service, raising costs to ensure the program is cost-neutral for taxpayers, and even doing away with the pilot altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sara Tienkamp, Aurora\u2019s Director of Operations, told Council that with current staffing levels and with the recommendations before Council, there would be \u201cno impact to the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can perform that duty under [the Operating Budget] with minimal impact,\u201d she said. \u201cThere might be some increased fuel, some maintenance on some vehicles, but all the other costs for staffing are already accommodated and we can fit that within the current service level that we provide. If you\u2019re considering including individuals over 65 at a $200 rate, that would cover the complete cost of hiring additional staff. Assuming that we would be over that $200 threshold that we\u2019re recommending we would need, then we would need an additional body. Those costs would be totally covered and it would be cost-neutral then.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the demand for windrow removal went down over the last winter season after Council attached a $100 fee \u2013 a 50 per cent decrease in uptake, she said \u2013 this further fee hike, she added, could result in a further reduction of applicants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast year we had around 275 applicants and that was inclusive of the ones that were subsidized by the Town that were low-income,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the program passed unanimously on a vote of 6 \u2013 0 \u2013 with Ward 3 Councillor Wendy Gaertner absent from last week\u2019s meeting \u2013 some lawmakers still had reservations on whether the price increase was the right way forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLow-income thresholds usually identify the poverty line, and I think we\u2019re not just talking about poverty here \u2013 what we\u2019re talking about is the ability to pay,\u201d said Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese. \u201cI think many of the low-income thresholds, no matter which one you use, are really quite low\u2026. I think it might not capture some of the people that really need it to people that are greater than [an individual income of] $21,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am just concerned that it is going to be too difficult for some of the people to enter this program even though they\u2019re at low income, but a little higher income than those thresholds.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland also had concerns over the costs and requested a status update as the program rolls out to ensure its meeting the mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important that staff do a report back in Q2 2026 with the results of this program to monitor its progress and offer any recommendations to improve the service or budget model,\u201d she said. \u201cAs we\u2019ve seen\u2026we\u2019ve had variations in different winters and I think this is something that would be beneficial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s windrow removal pilot program will continue into this coming winter \u2013 with an increased price per household, and subsidies to help others make ends meet. Council last week formally gave the green light to extend the pilot program another year, helping seniors and those living with disabilities to clear the ends of their driveways […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9Bn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-16 22:04:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36914,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36913\/revisions\/36914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}