Edmonton City Council has approved a plan to bring back sandboxes at community leagues, for use on sidewalks.
Sand is currently available at five civic yards for citizens to pick up for free and along major roads.
Sandboxes were kept filled at community leagues for the public to access, but the program ended in 2015. The city said that sandboxes were either under-used or over-used so they decided to scrap the project in order to save money.
The 2015 city budget had $300,000 put towards the project before cancellation.
“A lot of citizens said they'd love to help us keep our sidewalks safer but without the sand they feel limited so I think this is a great thing to consider,” said Bev Esslinger, councilor for Ward 2.
Several councillors have received complaints from people in their wards since the program ended.
“I've received several hot emails recently from constituents that are really disappointed,” said Ward 6 councillor Scott McKeen.
“If you just have snow pack and want to add some friction that’s great but if the snow melts like it did two weeks ago and you have ice that's not the best solution, that’s one of the things we're looking at,” said Doug Jones with the City of Edmonton.
“I mean, how many hip replacements can we save by empowering people to more easily put sand out onto slippery streets, said Mayor Don Iveson.
Currently city staff is working on a plan to restore community sandboxes and say that boxes will be restored before the end of the month.
The full report on a new plan, that may even involve a more effective material than sand, is expected to be completed and presented to council in June of 2017.
With files from Breanna Karstens-Smith
