OLDS — When you shovel your sidewalk and driveway, make sure you clear it fully; including the part of the driveway that goes over the sidewalk, or you could get a visit from the town’s peace officers.
Initially, they’ll just place a sticker on your door reminding you to clear that area as per the town bylaw. They’ll give you 48 hours to do so.
If they come back and it’s not cleared by then, you could be hit with a $250 fine. That fine is $500 for a second offence and $1,000 for a third offence.
If it still isn’t fully cleared, the town may hire a contractor to do so. The cost of that cleanup would then be added to your tax bill.
Senior peace officer Paul Wright also said if you’re going to be away during at least a portion of the winter, it’s your responsibility to arrange to have someone properly clear your driveway and sidewalk for you.
Peace officers are already handing out warning stickers, he said, adding that effort began a couple of weeks ago, after the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period was over.
He said if sidewalks and driveways are not cleaned properly that can be a safety problem, especially given that those parts of driveways going over sidewalks are usually sloped.
This enforcement drive is driven by a big spike of complaints that were generated from snowfall events that occurred before Christmas.
“They’re coming from seniors. They’re saying they’re having difficulty walking into the shops. The conditions are dangerous for them to kind of walk in on the sidewalks,” Wright said.
In response to those complaints, Wright took a drive around town and in just one street, he found that more than 50 per cent of the driveways weren’t fully cleaned as per the bylaw.
Wright told reporters he wasn’t sure if people are forgetting to clean those areas or they see their neighbours aren’t, so they think they don’t have to either.
But the bylaw is clear on that point, he said.
“Regardless of whether we get complaints or not, part of what we have to do as municipal enforcement is to go around and check these things anyway.
“It’s just been pushed to the front a little bit more by the number of complaints that we’ve had regarding sidewalks,” he said.
Wright agreed it’s a lot cheaper to clear your sidewalk than be hit with any of the fines in the bylaw.
"You can get quite a few snow shovels for $250,” one said.
Wright said before Christmas there were some occasions when snow fell, then let up, then fell again. Peace officers took that into account when deciding whether or not to issue warning notices.
“What we saw last year was we had snowfall after those warning notice so we kind of reset the clock again for us because it would be unfair for me to go around and say, ‘you haven’t cleaned it’ when they’ve cleaned it, then it’s been snowfall again,” he said.
“It’s a very labour-intensive job for us because we have to visit the same properties a number of times in order to carry out this enforcement.
“The good thing is once those notices went up, we saw pretty much 90 per cent of those houses cleaned their snow off afterwards."
