Our First Snow Job Of The Season

This is a bit much.

"DPW sidewalk clearing efforts spark debate in tough year"

That is the headline on page 9 of today's Sturbridge Villager. Now, read that headline again, and think of all that is says, and especially what it it doesn't say.

Done? OK, now let me fill you in and see if you are thinking the same as I am.

Let me first start off by saying that in the other communities I have been privileged to live in over the years the towns DPW has always taken upon itself to clear the sidewalks. They put them in for the safety of its residents, and they accepted their role in maintaining them. From repairing curbs, to filling cracks, and clearing snow, the DPW was responsible for their upkeep. Goes with keeping their residents safe. If one puts in sidewalks for the safety of people, then those that put in the sidewalks are liable for maintaining that safety of the sidewalks.

Simple.

Now, there are certain exceptions to this. If a store front is directly on the sidewalk, and snow from their rooftop can fall onto the sidewalk and impede foot traffic, then of course, the owner of the store should touch up and clear the sidewalk once the town make s the initial sweep of it. The store owner should also make sure it is free of ice as well after the sidewalk is initialy cleared.

In the other towns I have lived in there were many sidewalks, sidewalks all over the town. They were there not only for the convenience of pedestrians, but for children walking to school. Here in Sturbridge we bus our kids to school. There are no sidewalks leading to the Burgess School, or to the high school. We bus all of them. Talk about an ongoing expense, but that is fodder for another time.

Greg Morse is right in saying that historically the DPW has been responsible for clearing the sidewalks in town, as it should be. I have watched them clear them and they do a fine job considering what they are up against.

Now, here comes the town Selectman Scott Garieri questioning that the additional $10-20,000 spent annually may not be well spent in a "tough year". A tough year that was chosen to rehab the Town Hall and the Center School.

So, we will leave the sidewalks to be cleared by resident abuters? Some of those abuters own a long length of land abutting the sidewalks, and although the town bylaw states that if you abut it, you clear it, it must be rewritten. Am I responsible for the 304 feet that abuts my property with Route 148? Am I responsible for clearing this road, too? Oh, only sidewalks. Whew.

Morse says the town has a vehicle to clear the sidewalks, however its "footprint" is bigger than the sidewalks.

Now, think on that for a minute. Why would we buy a vehicle to clear snow from the sidewalks that was too large for the sidewalks it is meant to clear? Sounds like shear stupidity to me, or something more, which I believe it is. The vehicles don't fit because their are utility poles in the middle of the bloody sidewalks!!!

Well, duh.

Contrary to the Americans with Disability Act, the poles are in the middle of the sidewalks making using wheelchairs, or motorized scooters nearly impossible to use unless one goes out onto the roadway to circumvent the poles. I have watched mothers with double sided strollers do just that, and last summer I watches as a lady on her Lark scooter scoot around a pole by going off onto the road because she could not fit by one pole in Fiskdale.

The Feds have been patient with Sturbridges continuing to to ignore the law, but those days may be coming to an end. Federal fines, and lawsuits by private persons could add up to well over the million dollars estimated to fix the problem. All it would take is a formal complaint made to the Feds, and watch what happens.

As a result of the poles in the middle of the sidewalks, it makes snow removal a long, and tedious task. Trucks are used with their blades to push the snow off the sidewalks and onto the road, and it is then plowed further and eventually scooped up and removed.

Time consuming, but the only way it can be done.

Now, let's think on those needed sidewalks for the reconstruction of Route 131. Will the town be plowing those sidewalks clear, or will they appoint the property owners along the way to maintain them. Might as well demand the property owners to build them, too.

When the town is spending additional hundreds of thousands of dollars in placing a slate roof on the refurbished town hall, instead of the asphalt shingle one in the original plan, then $10-20K is nothing.

The headline in the paper tries to make the economy the culprit in this debate.

It ain't.

It is poor planning. We should already have those poles removed from the sidewalks in town instead of turfing the responsibility to abuters. Don't put the responsibility on others for the poor planing the town makes.

And, don't listen to those that say the cost is too much. Enforcement of the bylaw will cost plenty as well, and while the town chases those not complying there will be a person that can't hobble over the snow on the sidewalk and walks onto the road, and into traffic.

Cha-ching. Lawsuit time. Precedence will speak for itself in this case.

Just fix the real problem of the utility poles, and put that snow removal vehicle on the sidewalk and watch it clear a path right down route 20 in no time.

All this ballyhoo about cost, machines too big to plow, and abuters responsibility is just a snow job.