Peachland saving money this winter amid lack of snow

Snow plows sitting idle

Photo: Colin Dacre

Peachland has not seen much snow this winter.

With no real snow to speak of so far this winter, Peachland is saving money.

In response to a question from Coun. Terry Condon, Director of Engineering Jason Sandberg said Tuesday Peachland was under budget for snow clearing by $24,000 in 2025 with $10,000 of that a result of paying staff less overtime.

“In 2026, we’ve had next to no events so far, so again close to $10,000 in saved overtime at this point,” he said. “But we’re not out of the woods yet. Of course it’s February.”

Condon asked about snowpack levels, expressing concern about a possible water shortage when wildfire season arrives.

“Our snowpack is currently 57% of average,” Sandberg answered. “We measure it every week and this week we were only two centimetres lower than we were at this time last year — and then we had a number of snow events in early February and March that really made up for that.”

Water restrictions may be required, but Peachland is in a good position to handle a drought, he said.

“If the trend continues, we’ll need to recommend water restrictions earlier than we typically recommend them.

“In Peachland our reservoir is larger than adjacent municipalities’ reservoirs and we can handle several years of record droughts, like we seem to be having this winter,” Sandberg said.