During last week's town council meeting, councillors held a 32-minute discussion on how to deal with people who don't shovel their sidewalks.
In the end, they voted 5-2 in favour of a motion by councillor Paul Webb to enforce the town's snow removal bylaw on a complaint basis – in other words, only in response to complaints that sidewalks haven't been cleared within 24 hours of a snowfall.
The motion also said when responding to those complaints, town staff will use their existing three-step enforcement process.
The first step is to attempt to contact the property owner in person. If that isn't successful, the property owner is sent a registered letter informing them of the need to shovel their sidewalk within the period. If that isn't successful, the offending property owner is issued a ticket.
It could get even more expensive than that. The town may hire a contractor to clear the snow and ice away from the sidewalk.
Coun. Sandra Gamble and Earl Wilson voted against the motion.
The discussion was sparked when council considered a couple of letters from residents complaining about the problem.
Some people feel the town is leaning on them too hard, Weiss explained.
Wilson thought some clarification was needed.
“They're not complaining about the shovelling of the snow, they're just complaining about the manner (in which the bylaw is enforced),” Wilson said.
Coun. Sheila Church noted in the case of one letter writer, the sidewalk is broken up and “his private property is being utilized for public functions on a fairly regular basis. To me that seems reasonable,” she said.
“We need to use common sense,” she said several times during the discussion.
Gamble said maybe the town needs to fix that sidewalk.
It's a tough issue in a small community, Mayor Robb Stuart indicated. The town has a duty to ensure sidewalks are safe for pedestrians, yet at the same time, it doesn't want to appear heavy-handed.
“It's damned if you do and damned if you don't; because if you do it one way, you're going to put a lot of heat on places that don't need it. And if you do it the other way, the areas that are the main roads (need to be clear),” Stuart said.
