Hamilton council meets over ice storm damage

(update)

Hamilton councillors are asking the province for help paying for cleanup to trees, hydro and other infrastructure after last months’ ice storm.

The City of Hamilton has about a hundred people working six days a week, still trying to clear debris from the December 21st ice storm.

Mike McNamara is with the Hamilton Forestry Department: “We’re getting assistance from parks, horticulture, waste management, collections staff. They’re picking up brush and stuff for us. It’s just, ongoing.”

Gerry Davis is with Hamilton Public Works: “We had said two months. We’re now saying toward the end of March. If we ge another ice storm, we’ll be frozen. Hindered from getting to trees. So we’re looking to the end of March. We have every available resource on it.”

The city has received almost 37-hundred calls about damaged trees so far. But calls are still coming in, and the damage is still evident on curbsides everywhere. There were almost as many tree calls in 2013 as there were in total between 2007 and 2012.

Judi Partridge is a Hamilton City Councillor: “The devastation to our tree canopy is really quite unbelievable.”

In council chambers, elected officials gave a standing ovation to thank those outside workers, whose overtime hours are often spent battling frigid, blowing conditions.

And council unanimously agreed to ask the province for relief funding, although so far there is no known amount of damage.

If you can bundle brush into four foot lengths and leave it for brush collection, that’s best. If it’s too big, leave it by curb. The city woodchipper will eventually be by. Call the city if you still have tree damage that hasn’t been called in. Once all this mess is cleaned up. The city will start concentrating on planting new trees.