As the final piles of snow melt away, you won't notice many potholes around Estevan, according to city roads and drainage manager Norm Mack.

Mack says the efforts of his snow clearing crews during the winter months have prevented potholes from springing up, making drives smooth for Estevan residents.

"The city of Estevan's quite fortunate that we don't have a whole lot of potholes," Mack said. "We've all along moved the snow off our streets all winter long, and bladed the streets clean and hauled all the snow away and tried to do that all winter long, and that pays off in the spring."

"Moisture creates these potholes so the less snow that there is to melt on the streets, the less potholes we've got."

Mack said the few potholes that have emerged around town are currently being filled by city crews, and the work doesn't stop in the summer months.

"We put a real emphasis on crack filling our cracks during the summer and pavement maintenance. We catch the cracks before they even turn to potholes. As far as compared to others cities, I think we do a pretty good job with our street maintenance," Mack said.

Mack added that in the last few years in particular, his crews have been able to keep potholes to a minimum, largely due to the city's snow removal policy of scraping streets right down to the pavement.

"With the price of new pavement, we really want to emphasize on keeping the stuff we have and doing maintenance on it and crack filling, so we're in good shape," he said.

Mack said the city's hot mix plant will be up and running in a couple weeks, which is a permanent solution to potholes. That will be used to fill some of the bigger water break holes. Mack said they have to wait for the frost to come out of the ground before they start that process.

"That's what we're waiting for...some warmer weather. And we'll be in the full swing of pavement maintenance," he said.

He added that the sweepers are out right now cleaning debris off of the streets.

If you do notice a pothole, Mack said you can call Estevan City Hall, and crews will address it.