By TERRY PUGH
Time to get out the shovels.
The first snowfall of the season arrived, predictably, just before Halloween.
And while most of it melted shortly afterward, Mother Nature isn’t likely to take on the snow-removal contract for the whole winter.
A portion of that responsibility will now fall to property owners in the City of Warman. City councillors voted at their October 13 meeting to approve a new Sidewalk Snow Clearing Bylaw.
The new bylaw, which is now in effect, applies only to sidewalks, not streets. The full bylaw can be viewed online at the city’s website (warman.ca).
City of Warman public works crews will continue to clear arterial, collector and residential municipal roadways on a priority basis as usual, but they’ll avoid pushing snow onto sidewalks during normal operations. In some circumstances, such as a particularly heavy and sustained snowstorm, city crews may place snow on the sidewalk; but in those cases the city will also be responsible for removing the snow later.
The passage of the sidewalk snow clearing bylaw came after several months of discussion at the council table and consultation with the public, including an online survey and face-to-face feedback gathered during the Warman Open for Business trade show in early October.
Prior to the passage of the new bylaw, Warman did not require homeowners and businesses to clear sidewalks in front of their property. However, most property owners did so anyway.
A city administration report to the October 13 council meeting noted that sidewalk safety and accessibility are important issues for residents. Nearly three-quarters of all respondents to the city’s online survey said they used public sidewalks at least weekly, and over 80 per cent of those people experience winter sidewalk safety problems at least occasionally.
Under the new bylaw, property owners have up to 48 hours following the end of a snow event to remove snow and ice from the sidewalk adjacent to their property. Ice that cannot reasonably be removed must be treated with sand or salt to reduce slipping hazards until complete removal is possible.
The bylaw states the sidewalk must be cleared so that a walking path is reasonably free of snow and ice. Snow removed from the sidewalk cannot be deposited onto a city roadway.
Catch basins, curb ramps, and accessible crossings must also be kept reasonably clear where practical, according to the bylaw.
While penalties for failure to comply range from $100 for a second offence up to a maximum of $500 for a fourth and subsequent offence, the focus of bylaw enforcement officials during the upcoming winter season will be on education and encouraging property owners to abide by the new rules.
The bylaw does allow city officials to grant temporary exemptions in cases where the responsible person has a documented medical condition preventing compliance or other extenuating circumstances.
During discussion of the bylaw at the October 13 meeting, Councillor Marshall Seed asked about how the city would document cases where snow or ice had been deposited on a sidewalk by city street-clearing equipment, and how this would be communicated to the affected property owners. Administration officials stated the city would communicate directly with the residents using the most efficient method available.