Now that most of the snow has melted, even in the shaded areas, and temperatures are starting to climb, it's time to turn our attention to our city's state of cleanliness.
Even casual observances provide plenty of evidence that our city's highways and byways, yards, ditches and lawns need a good dose of springtime restorative efforts.
It's time for us to clean the dross of winter and put a fresher face on the community.
We can now repair what the ravages of winter have damaged.
With the temperatures climbing steadily toward two figures, we can safely put the snow shovels away and haul out the rakes, and very soon, the lawn mowers.
The onus is on everyone to do a little pick up following our winter toss aways.
The residential, commercial and industrial areas of our city are looking a bit ugly these days as winds whip up the dust and debris we've left behind this past winter. It was just too cold to bother, we said as a way of making excuses. Well, no excuses work now.
No doubt the city's public works squads will be out with street sweepers in rapid order, which will be a good signal for the rest of us to get behind our brooms and rakes in the name of civic pride.
Now that we have orderly civic garbage and recyclable pickups, there is no excuse for waste papers and fast-food leftovers to be floating around and sticking in our hedges or along the fence lines.
It is time to pick up and fix up.
It is time for muddy vehicles to get cleaned. A few years ago during one of our city's environmental and safety seminars, we were informed that industrial transport (i.e. large semi-trucks and railway) were the largest contributors to our environmentally damaging dirt particle drifts. Those items, along with the agricultural chemical and operating drifts, were the biggest threats to our respiratory well being. In other words, hauling the stuff in and out of mines or into and out of the oilpatch was taking a bigger toil on our health than the burning of the coal was at the power plant stage by far.
So getting rid of some of that dirt on the equipment, moving the dust out of the curbs and sidewalks and into a collection bin, means we're protecting ourselves and our neighbours while making our city look just a little bit better.
Now, while the grass is still brown, the trees still barren and the flowers not yet ready to bloom, is a prime time for us to get out and get a little dirty while making the landscape around us less so.
So grab a garbage bag and pail, a shovel or rake, put on some gloves, and head out into the great outdoors to grab some fresh air while making the Energy City a great looking centre piece of southeast Saskatchewan.
