Winter seems to be slowly slipping away. (Though temperatures will struggle to reach freezing today.)
There’s no snow in the forecast.
But even if we don’t see another flake this season, this is New England. In less than a year, we’ll shovel again.
Well, some Westporters won’t.
That’s the topic of Clarence Hayes’ “Opinion” piece today. The Representative Town Meeting member writes:
Westport is an outlier. Out of 169 municipalities in Connecticut, it is one of the very few (if not the only one) whose Public Works Department has the responsibility to clear residential sidewalks after a snowstorm.
In nearly every other community, this responsibility falls to the adjacent property owners. While Westport’s DPW does its best to keep up, it’s time to acknowledge that this system is unsustainable.
Cross Highway, after a snowfall.
Currently, our town has 26 miles of residential sidewalks. That number will grow, as new sidewalks are added.
The highway crew of 16 workers already puts in grueling 12- to 30-hour shifts clearing and salting roads during storms. After tackling streets, parking lots, and even hauling snow out of downtown, they are then expected to begin the long, labor-intensive task of clearing sidewalks.
Depending on the severity of the storm, it can take up to a week before all sidewalks are passable. If storms come back-to-back, sidewalk clearing may not happen at all.
By that time, snow has often hardened into “snowcrete” — a dense, icy layer that is far more difficult to remove than fresh snow, and creates even more hazardous conditions.
“Snowcrete” on Hillspoint Road, between Hillandale and Prospect Roads. (Photo/Clarence Hayes)
This means that even when sidewalks are cleared, they may still be icy, uneven or impassable in spots. And when storms come in quick succession, sidewalk clearing may have to be delayed or skipped altogether as crews focus on keeping roads safe.
Meanwhile, residents understandably want safe walkways immediately after a storm. Pedestrians, including schoolchildren and commuters, rely on these sidewalks to get around safely. But the reality is that the town simply cannot provide immediate service to sidewalks while prioritizing road safety.
The solution is simple and fair: Update our town ordinances to require property owners to clear sidewalks adjacent to their property, as is standard in most Connecticut towns.
Prior to storms, in addition to salting their driveway and front steps, homeowners would take a few more steps out and cover their sidewalk. This would dramatically ease the burden on our public works crews, while ensuring sidewalks are cleared faster for everyone.
There will, of course, be pushback from some who do not want to take on this responsibility. But Westport is a community that values walkability and safety. If we want our sidewalks to be clear and accessible after a storm, this ordinance change is a necessary step.
It’s time for Westport to adopt a sidewalk snow removal ordinance that aligns with the rest of the state. Doing so will improve safety, support our public works department, and ensure that our growing sidewalk network remains usable all winter long.
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Disagree.
If town doesn’t have the manpower or enough of those little sidewalk thingies, it should damned well man up…some of us, thankfully, are up to the task of clearing snow and some of us can afford to hire someone else if we can’t.
But many residents can neither do it or afford to have it done…we all pay taxes, let the town figure out what NOT to waste $ on and put that money toward staffing up to clear the walks that IT laid out.
Disagree. Not all residents are able to complete such a task or can afford it to have someone do it? Maybe the Town can hire high school students to help out. We pay enough in taxes.
In addition to the above comments, the private hired snow plows push snow from driveways AND private roads across Whitney Street onto the sidewalk. It would be unrcontionable to put the burden on the homeowners on the side of the street with the sidewalk to clear these mounds of snow.
Hire a private contractor to only do sidewalks. Seriously, Westport can’t afford $18,000 dollars to clear and salt (pre-salt) 26 miles of sidewalks? We spent about $5,000 this winter just in our neighborhood. They’d come three times to make sure all the sidewalks were cleared of any snow or ice.
If we can afford a 100m school.. and a Taj Mahal shed for 7 m then we can sure as shit do the sidewalks !!!!
I live in Norwalk, and we have an ordinance that requires homeowners to shovel their sidewalks. Most people don’t!
It is basically unenforcable and people are constanly complaining about neighbors who don’t shovel. It is a lovely idea. I shovel mine, and my neighbors as I live on a busy road. and walking on the road is dangerous. You can try, but I don,t predict that it will work. Maybe your plow guys can be paid to add it to plowing!
I live on a private road- 4 households, no association. One household refuses to contribute to snowplowing – they are at the end of the road, and their uncleared melting snow flows down the hill and refreezes at night- a problem for those of us below them. Another household may use their snowblower now and then to clear the lower roadway, but we never know if he will or not. In light of this, the 4th household decided to contribute with us so we hired our mutual landscaper to plow and shovel for us. “Mr. snowblower” recently decided he’d clear his parking/walkway section, leaving the snow in the middle of the road , which of course became “snowcrete” on Monday, Presidents Day, after the warm rainy Sunday. The piles needed to be removed – so we spent to day chipping away at it. Seems like the town could make arrangements to clear the sidewalks, but I can see where there are problems, given the absurdity of some of my neighbors’ behavior. A simple solution, right?
Gotta step back in; in a town with median income of 250 grand and an average house price of 1.7mil, we can goddamned well afford to avoid heart attacks and have proper equipment manned by them that know how to use it to clear our sidewalks..I say this as a home owner with no sidewalk in front of his house so I really have no lobster in this trap.
Here in Augusta Maine, our Sheriff’s department will send out a crew to shovel pathways to front doors, to oil tanks for oil deliveries, sidewalks for disabled or senior citizens.
They have guys from the Prison on the crews. We also live in a neighborhood with a mix of families with or without kids, seniors and working folks. When we have several storms in a row, we try to help each other out with keeping things clear.
The town plows the streets and main roads, but leaves a pile across the foot of our driveway that if it gets wet and freezes makes a barrier to access. So even though we would rather nor have to go back out after already clearing our driveways, we jyst go out and clear it. We have a law that you can’t throw the snow in the street due to it be a safety hazard
Ha! I’ve been waiting for the moment when the poop would finally hit the fan. Over the past few years, the town has been rolling out new sidewalks as if they were on a giant dispenser. It must have (or certainly should have) considered the lifetime maintenance implications of this behavior and planned accordingly. Personally, I think the residents who have demanded the new sidewalks which now front their property should be benefit assessed. But we won’t go there. In any event, as other commenters have noted, compliance with any residential sidewalk snow removal ordinance will be underwhelming. The town has been playing this “chicken in every pot” game and no one has said a word about the full implications of all these new sidewalks. It’s just going to have to eat its own cooking. Unfortunately, we’ll all be paying – and paying – for that meal .
As a merchant in town I’m stuck with the horiffic orange shit the town forced down our throats.. I’d have never agreed to the crap they installed with their croneys !!!! Who ripped us off
Yep… a few sq foot of paving just in front of nômade is 100k.. a fkg joke.. talk about ripped offfffff
It IS W Parish, but it’s not sidewalk. If you add every flat strip to the sidewalks, the notion of a real solution will be ever-elusive.
As a commercial property owner on Post Road I have the responsibility to clear the sidewalk in front of my building- why would residential not be the same?
where are the photos of neighborhoods with the snazzy new sidewalks? have those homeowners shoveled? these pictures illustrate an older part of town with narrow roads
Thanks for the interesting feedback. My summary of the points made:
a. relying on homeowners will not work, since they will not uniformly comply, and enforcement by penalty/shame will not work. So we will end up with half-cleared sidewalks… This seems like a valid concern. So one follow-up would be to talk to the public works departments of neighboring towns to see what level of compliance they get and whether sidewalks remain hazardous regardless of their local ordinance.
b. the town should hire a 3rd party temporary workforce to clear sidewalks at the same time PWD is clearing roads. This would lead to a better result and is a fair ask of the town taxpayers. I agree this would be a useful data point to add to the discussion. We could ask the administration to put out an RFP to discover the cost range we’d actually be looking at for this alternative.
Thanks Clarence. For the record, whilst observing the seemingly endless tsunami of significant capital improvement appropriation requests roll in, I often wonder if anyone on the RTM specifically asks about the future maintenance obligations of whatever is being debated. Is there a line item for its particular maintenance, etc? Westport is notorious for building stuff – and then sort of walking away. The appalling conditions in Parker Harding, for instance, didn’t randomly happen. That was mainly the result of a choice driven by our own, deeply entrenched posture as it relates to public realm infrastructure. Thank you for your concern and for your service.
Most residents have their driveways cleared by their professionals, extend it to the sidewalks. If one does their own driveway, clearing the sidewalk for the benefit of the community should be a ‘no brainer’.
For those that are physically and economically challenged, the High school has many able bodied students that could volunteer for this task and/or for a stipend for each property from that town. Certainly, less expensive then town union employees.
Clearing the few inches of annual snow from a sidewalk is no problem… clearing the piles of ice and snow the town and state plows push onto the sidewalks is impossible.
Once upon a time, not long ago, there was a quaint southern New England town that attracted envious urbanites to its open space, lack of fencing, natural walkways, modest architecture, and preference for dandelions over cement.
When envy engenders relocation, transformation to familiarity follows.
As concrete rolls over nature, and cement reshapes the landscape ever towards that inbred urban experience, over time their comfort zone becomes sequentially replicated.
Rather than complaining about cement sidewalks replete with ice, cracks, heaves, holes, root displacement, unevenness, looseness, runoff, frozen puddles, tripping, ankle sprains, colles fractures, curb accidents, etc, they should instead revel in fond memories.
I believe it is long past the time when residents should shovel the snow from their sidewalks.
Common sense and common courtesy would suggest a homeowner is responsible for the sidewalk in front of their house as well as their walkways, driveway and porch. I grew up and lived in “snow areas” my whole life. Was always the responsibility of home owners. Cities plowed roads. YOU shoveled in front of house and your street parking if needed/applicable.
LOTS of griping here about the city having to do it. Own a home, also own the work and societal responsibility. Pay someone if you can’t do it – kids out there looking for $. Sometimes a kind neighbor lends a hand.
Always irritating when so many people post here pointing a finger at the town to do more work when there isn’t the $ to do it. Of course, plenty of town trade offs to make but most readers here favor the more expensive path (Long Lots build v renovate, etc). Town should simply jack up local taxes and let folks feel the consequences of their whining!
those who can, should for public safety. where i live now, we are responsible for own adjacent sudewalks. for many, it can even be good exercise. Growing up, didn’t our parents used to expect us to do it – where there were sidewalks where we lived – in addition to shoveling the driveway and steps leading up to the house? Do you have teens at home? It’s a chore they can do in the winter. My two cents……
My colleague Clarence Hayes, RTM D4, must not shovel a sidewalk like I do.
I have 25 years of experience and observation of snow removal of the 200 feet of sidewalk in front of my home. IDIM – I DO IT MYSELF. I will fight any attempt at an ordinance to make it the homeowner’s responsibility to keep sidewalks clean. (Rule # 1of snow removal: the Sun is your friend).
To the casual observer, you may notice how narrow our roads are and how sidewalks are right next to the road. You might also notice how there is sidewalk on one side of the street and that it shifts back and forth to the other side.
Westport’s road crews do an amazing job of clearing the streets in a timely manner. But where does the snow get plowed? Yes, onto the sidewalks! So not only does the homeowner clear the snow that has fallen onto his/her sidewalk, but the snow that has been plowed from driveways onto the street that now gets plowed onto the sidewalk.
I happen to clear the sidewalk in front of my house as soon as I can. Not for the sake of the Town and Town employees, but for the sake and safety of the kids in our neighborhood who walk to school. (I won’t get into how dangerous speeding cars and crazy drivers are a threat in this commentary). I push the plowed snow off the sidewalk to the curb only to have to plowed back onto the sidewalk. So ice, snow, slush, sand and salt pile up to freeze and thaw and freeze some more until the Sun does its job and melts it away.
Thanks a lot! And now you want to make me liable?
Sidewalks are in the Town right of way. I have NO jurisdiction of what can or cannot be done to the sidewalk in front of my house. Ownership belongs to the Town AND the liability belongs to the Town. To shift that liability to the homeowner when it is the Town that plows additional ice and snow onto the sidewalk is ridiculous.
So if anyone wants an ordinance to shift the burden of snow removal from Town owned sidewalks onto the homeowners who have one running in front of their property, I say “Bring it on! Over my dead body!” Enjoy the day – the Sun is shining!
Louis M. Mall – RTM D2
Lou Mall.
And no you won’t be cornering me in town hall anytime soon
shovel your shit.. don’t worry about other people’s responsibilities. Another fossil we need to enlighten !!!!!
You tell us you are a downtown merchant. I’m curious whether you treat your customers with the same disdain and disrespect with which you treat readers & commenters on this blog.
You all sound like a bunch of rich white privileged Westport snobs. Give me a f’in break.
Be happy you have a great highway department that works endless hours to keep the roads clean so you snobs can drive your expensive cars around to get your anxiety Medicines for your family.
When I had my business in town it was my responsibility to clear the sidewalks. So god for bid you have to pick a shovel up to clean your sidewalk. Next you’ll complain that when the town plows the road in front of your house they put snow back your driveway.
Get out of your liberal white entitlement bubble.
You need some new material.
Growing up in NYC every residential and commercial owners were obligated to clear their sidewalk or get a summons. Everyone had to do it to keep people safe. If a store was open and hadn’t cleared the area in front of their establishment they would get a summons. If a building had a sidewalk it needed to be clear. Why would we exempt Westport? If that has public support it needs to be built into the property taxes. This is not difficult to address.
Have you people ever heard of snowblowers? I just checked Amazon, and the most expensive ones are about $319. I would think that people who can afford to live in Westport can afford a snowblower. Then they wouldn’t have to lift heavy shovels.
But I never lived in a house with a sidewalk, so I shouldn’t preach.