The highway maintenance contractor for the North Thompson is planning to make changes next winter, according to the TNRD area director.

Carol Schaffer says that message came to her from the Ministry of Transportation’s local district manager Val Hansacker, when they had a meeting on Tuesday night.

She says she was also informed the maintenance contractor, Lakes District Maintenance, has had a recent change in ownership as well.

“They’re going to do summer maintenance improvements as well, but what we’re worried more about is the winter and the roads in the winter. It seems like they’re going to do quite a few improvements for that. Whether it’s signage, whether it’s more salt and sand, who knows. But they are working on some improvements.”

Schaffer had asked for a meeting with the MoT after two truck crashes along the Yellowhead Highway happened in the same week during the winter, which both caused hundreds of litres of diesel to be spilled.

The first of those spills, on Dec. 30, went into the North Thompson River and caused Vavenby’s water system to be shut down for five days.

“What bothers us, is if chemicals go into the water or oil or anything like that, it can really affect our water system because we take it out of the river. That’s the only place we can do it right now, and we don’t need (spills) affecting our system.”