With the winter-like weather holding off, for now, City crews are making the most of it continuing with their fall cleanups.

Mitch Minken, general manager of infrastructure and operations with the City of Swift Current, said the recent weather has been good allowing crews to scoop up the falling leaves before they get stuck in the storm drains.

"While the weather is still warm enough we're actually doing quite a bit of sweeping of the leaves to keep the leaves out of the gutters and blocking the storm drains in preparation for the spring melt," he said.

While the winter conditions are inevitable, the City has already serviced all of their snowblowers and sand trucks in preparation for the snowfall to hit anytime now.

"Absolutely we're ready to go," Minken said. "We have purchased and stockpiled our sand and salt mixture for sanding the streets, so we're all ready to go for dreaded snow removal season."

The City hasn't added any new equipment to its fleet for this upcoming season. Minken did note the specialized piece of equipment they bought to maintain the 2nd Avenue overpass and sidewalks within the city last year was a vast improvement on the skid-steer they had previously.

The winter cleanup budget is split annually and because Swift Current didn't experience heavy snowfall from January to March it puts the City funds for 2017 snow removal in a good spot currently.

"We had a pretty light first part of the year," Minken explained. "We're sitting in really good shape heading into the last half of the year."