The public works yard is located at Municipal Drive and also houses the transfer station for household waste. The public works yard has a garage for servicing the fleet of vehicles and the sand dome for storage of winter sand. The public works garage is not open to the public. To contact the public works manager, call the municipal office at 342-5252.

 

The public works department operates 5 days a week, normally from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. In the summertime, we modify the work schedule so the crews are off on Friday at noon. This is done for safety reasons, as we do not want our crews working on the road system when the traffic escalates with the arrival of the seasonal residents. We have one employee on call 7 days a week to deal with after hours calls. To contact the public works department call the municipal office at (705) 342-5252. The office staff will relay messages to the public works manager, foreman or person on call. When a call is made to the department after normal hours our answering service will pick up the call, collect the relevant information, ie. nature of the call, location and who called. This information is then forwarded to the on-call staff to respond. How and when we respond will depend upon the nature of the call, if the problem is a health or public safety issue we will respond immediately. This means our on call person will be dispatched to fix the problem and if more resources are needed the public works crews may be called in.

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FAQ

Q) When will my road be snow plowed?

A) This will depend on the road classification and amount of snowfall. Typically we operate our snow plow operation between 4:30 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. when there is an excess of 3 inches of snow on the travelled surface of the road. Our goal is to have our high traffic roads open by 8:00 a.m. Seasonal roads are not snow plowed.

Q) Do you sand and salt roads?

A) All roads are maintained in snow packed condition. We use a sand /salt mixture in areas that are more hazardous ie. hills, curves, intersections and railway crossings.

Q) I hit a pothole or washout and damaged my vehicle, will you pay for the repair?

A) No, we will not pay for damages to vehicles that travel/use our roadways. We maintain our roads to a specific standard and we do road patrols at set frequencies. The driver of the vehicle is responsible to operate it in a safe manner at speeds applicable to existing conditions and have full control of the vehicle to avoid road hazards.

Q) My property is on a private road that receives no road services, will the municipality assume the road and provide service?

A) The municipality has a policy that a road will not be assumed until it is constructed to a municipal standard that allows for the safe use of the road by the public and by our municipal roads equipment. In addition to this the Council will also consider if the road serves a public interest, and if the future tax revenue justifies the ongoing road maintenance cost. A request for this is initiated by writing a letter to Council describing the road and from this Council will usually direct staff to prepare a report that addresses all of the issues/concerns.

Q) To access my property I need to use an unopened municipal road allowance, can I use it?

A) The public has access to use unopened road allowances provided they do not change or modify in any way the existing road allowance conditions. If you need to cut trees or build a road across the road allowance then you will need to complete an "Application to Use Sections of Unopened Road Allowance".

Q) If I see road damage, a tree blocking the road, etc. how do I report it?

A) Call the municipal number 342-5252, we will need to know the road name and approximate location of the damage.

Q) Beavers are causing flooding of my property will you respond?

A) We do not respond to flooding on private property unless the beaver has built a dam or other obstacle on a municipal property that is the cause of your flooding.

Q) My driveway has washed out, will you fix it?

A) We will fix your driveway entrance if the washout is caused by water running down or off our road surface. If the water ran off of your property and caused the damage it is up to you to do the repair.

Q) I reported a street light being out two weeks ago and it has not been repaired, why?

A) The repair of street lights is contracted out as we do not have the specialized equipment to do this service. To be cost effective we do not call our contractor until we have 2-3 repairs.

Q) I have a property on a seasonal maintained road, when do you do this service so I can access my property as soon as possible in the spring.

A) The seasonal maintenance starts when the roads dry out sufficiently for our equipment to go in and do basic repairs (fix washouts, minor grading etc.) without causing road damage. When the roads are wet and the frost is coming out of the road bed we can not do any maintenance. So the answer to this question will depend upon Mother Nature, in how much snow is on the ground in the spring, how much rain we receive, how the spring thaw develops, overnight freezing.

Q) How does McDougall communicate road problems or closures that impact the public?

A) If we have a planned closure there are many ways that we can communicate this such as, we will advertise in the local newspaper, we may do a door to door flyer, we could post the road with planned closure notices. If a problem occurs that is not anticipated such as very fast spring thaw that washes out roads we would use the local radio stations to make public announcements.