An Edmonton councillor wants to bring back the now-defunct community sandbox program, and he is hoping his colleagues agree.
The city scrapped its community sandbox program to improve efficiencies in the transportation department, saving it $300,000 every year.
However, Ward 10 Councillor Michael Walters thinks that was a bad move.
“This winter, people have been asking for it. As word got out that sand wasn’t available at the community leagues anymore, I got a number of emails and lots of phone calls about it,” he said.
“People [were] saying they used the sand to help manage the ice on their sidewalks and particularly since we’ve been seeing more freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw cycles, sidewalks have been a little more difficult to manage for folks.”
Walters is putting a motion forward at Tuesday’s city council meeting asking for city administration to create a new and improved community sandbox program next winter.
“People just see it as a useful service. What I’ve asked for is not just to go back to the service that we had. We had, in some cases, some ramshackle boxes with sand that a few people took too much of sometimes,” he said.
“I’m hopeful [the motion] passes this week and we can get our staff working on something better that actually provides a better service to people. It was one of those things that was an easy, local thing that people could get in their neighbourhood – a little bit of sand that just helps them manage their sidewalks and keep them safe for everybody.”
Sand is now only available at city maintenance yards:
- Central: 10517 – 95 Street
- Northeast: 13003 – 56 Street
- Southeast: 5409 – 59 Avenue
- Southwest: 14710 Ellerslie Road
- Northwest: 14320 – 114 Avenue
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