File photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / haraldmucFile photo courtesy of © Can Stock Photo / haraldmuc
Chatham

Winter sidewalk maintenance staying as is

Chatham-Kent will be keeping the status quo when it comes to removing snow and ice in the municipality.

During Monday night's meeting, a staff report was up for approval. It recommended that the current sidewalk maintenance service remains the same for this winter -- property owners would de-ice their own sidewalks, while the municipality takes care of plowing all municipal sidewalks in Chatham-Kent and salting the downtown core areas.

However, the report recommended that for the 2020/2021 winter season property owners be required to clear snow and ice the sidewalks in front of their homes or business.

These recommendations came after changes to the provincial Minimum Maintenance Standards Regulation were introduced recently requiring that municipalities establish a plan for ice and snow removal.

For a lot of councillors, the idea of making residents plow their own sidewalks didn't sit well.

Councillor Doug Sulman introduced a successful motion to keep things the way they are, saying it would be a "burden" to make people take care of clearing the snow.

"We all know that one of the ways you die of heart attacks is plowing snow," he said. "So, I listened to what the public said and brought a motion that kept basically the status quo."

There was another option on that table for the municipality to be responsible for both plowing and salting all sidewalks. This would have come with an estimated cost increase of $500,000 in new taxes for additional staff labour and equipment.

A couple of councillors pushed for this option, citing an ageing population. However, Sulman said he believed that continuing to require residents to salt their sidewalks within 48-hours of ice formation was reasonable, noting that in most instances the ice would have melted in that time frame anyway.

"[It's] not too onerous," said Sulman. "If you've got a 60-foot lot, you've got 20 steps to take, that's all. I think that's a good reflection of what the community's asked for. I think our citizens are very responsible and I don't think they'll be any issues with them doing a little salting but to ask them to shovel snow in an ageing population just doest make a lot of sense."

Sulman's motion also succeeded in getting rid of a recommendation to add bylaw enforcement services at an estimated extra cost of $35,000 a year.

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