Snow removal in Bowmanville, all winter.

Bowmanville is not one snow job but three

Which part of town you bought in decides what a winter costs you here, and there are three answers. What comes off an Aspen Springs driveway in four minutes can want three passes down at Port Darlington on the same night, and the King Street core is a different problem again.

Port Darlington is the one to understand first. It is newer waterfront build, and the lake sits in front of it with nothing between open water and the driveways. Snow lifts off Lake Ontario and lands where the wind decides, so a driveway down there can need clearing on a morning when one two kilometres north is bare. That is not bad luck. It is where the house is, and it repeats every winter.

Liberty Street North and the newer streets beside it are the easiest of the three, and the price ought to say so. The driveways up there are wide, but they are also new and sealed, so a blade takes them down to the pavement in one pass and leaves nothing behind to freeze into the surface overnight. That is the difference between a driveway that is clear and one that has simply been shovelled.

The King Street and Liberty Street core is the old problem. Shorter lots, some slope on the driveways, street parking, and plow banks along the road edge that climb until there is nowhere left to put anything by February. Down there the question is where the snow goes and whether the surface gets salted, not how big the machine is.

Aspen Springs is where the Bowmanville run starts: compact, well laid out and close to the Highway 401 access back to the Oshawa base. The more members on one street, the earlier everybody on it is finished.

What a Bowmanville winter costs

Snow season runs November 1 to May 1, and it is sold inside a membership billed in twelve equal payments. Gold at $189 a month plus HST plows the driveway and targets 7 AM after overnight snow. Platinum at $279 a month plus HST goes out first and targets 6:30. Silver at $129 a month plus HST does not plow the driveway: it takes the municipal windrow off the end of it by 5 PM and banks four full clears a season. Those times are targets rather than guarantees, and the full comparison sits on the memberships page.

We go out at a measured 3 cm and you never have to phone to start a run. The trigger and the order of service are written out on the snow removal page.

Without a membership, seasonal snow is $800 for a small driveway, $975 standard and $1,200 large, plus HST. Gold covers the same driveway all winter and adds the weekly lawn visits from May on one payment.

And the case where you should not buy this from me. If you are in the King Street core with a single driveway and somewhere on the lot to put the snow, a winter membership is more than that property needs, and I would rather say so on the phone than after you have signed. What is worth buying down there is a $25 salt only trip for the mornings the slope on those driveways glazes over.

Why the band and not a flat town rate: Environment Canada records 93.1 cm of snow a year at Bowmanville Mostert near the lake and 141.9 cm at Tyrone, 11.8 km north and still inside Clarington, which is 3.7 more days a year bringing 5 cm or more. The whole arithmetic, including what the Municipality will and will not clear, is set out in what snow removal costs in Bowmanville.

Questions Bowmanville homeowners ask

Do you come this far east, or do you stop at Oshawa?

Bowmanville is on the route and it runs with Courtice at the east end of the night. Aspen Springs, Liberty Street North, Mearns Avenue, Soper Creek, the King Street core and Port Darlington all sit inside it.

My driveway in Port Darlington drifts back in. Do you come back?

Yes, and a second pass is not a second charge on Gold or Platinum. Drifting off open water is the normal condition on the waterfront, so I price it into the membership and it never comes back to you as a bill for the storm. If the municipal plow reblocks the foot of the driveway after we have been through, a windrow return trip is $45.

What time will my driveway be cleared?

Platinum is sequenced first with a 6:30 AM target and Gold follows with a 7 AM target after overnight snow. Both are targets and not guarantees, because trucks break down and storms do as they please. Tell me your street and I will tell you honestly where you land in the order.

Can I join partway through the winter?

Ask, but do not plan on it. Once the route is full it stays closed for the winter, because a morning target only means something while there is still room in the morning to keep it. October is a much better month for this conversation than January.

If you want the lawn on the same payment, that is the year round Bowmanville page. The three memberships are compared line by line on their own page, and a commercial property goes out at 5 cm instead of 3, which is the commercial snow page.

Summer on the same route: weekly lawn care in Bowmanville.