Board of Directors Discuss Snow and Ice Removal Policy

As part of an otherwise relatively uneventful meeting Tuesday, the Board of Directors discussed the town’s snow and ice removal ordinance and whether any changes should be made to the policy in light of the current winter.

General Manager Scott Shanley said the town had been lenient with its enforcement of the policy this winter season simply because some storms produced so much snow, and came in such rapid succession, that there was simply no place for residents to put all the snow.

“We have not been terribly aggressive in enforcing that ordinance, because people simply cannot comply with it,” Shanley said.  “We can’t ask people to do impossible things.”

But Shanley said that the past several days of clear weather and mild temperatures provided an ample opportunity for residents to clear snow and ice from around their sidewalks, and that the town would start aggressively enforcing the policy again this week.

“We really are going to have to start issuing citations to people who don’t clear their sidewalks, because it really does present a danger to walkers and children who walk to schools,” Shanley said. “We’re not interested in writing tickets, but we’re at the point now where we have to enforce this for the safety of the young people in the community.”

The town’s snow and ice removal ordinance states that residents with an abutting public sidewalk must remove all snow and ice from it within 24 hours of snowfall. The penalty for not doing so is a $99 citation from the Manchester Police Department per day of the violation.

Rudy Kissmann, a Democratic member of the board, said that to enforce the ordinance and when not to set a bad example for residents and could lead to confusion, and thus more violations. Kissmann said that the town should either enforce the policy or remove it from the books, and that if the ordinance were too cumbersome to enforce as written, then it should be revised.

“It’s inconsistent enforcement. Either we have to change the way the law is written or enforce what we have,” Kissmann said. “I don’t feel we should enforce things when you choose to enforce them. I understand the snow is high. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Shanley said he agreed with Kissmann and would be more than happy to look at revising or altering the policy if the board elected to do so. He said he could not remember any instance where the town actually had to issue a citation for its violation in at least five years.

“The only reason that we didn’t begin issuing tickets a week and a half ago is we would have had to issue tickets to probably a 1,000 properties, ”Shanley said.  “I would welcome, we would all welcome to have that ordinance looked at.”

Mayor Louis Spadaccini, a Republican member of the board, said he did not think the town should be setting long-term policy based on aberrations, which he called the current winter season.

“I think it’s very important to keep things in perspective that this is an atypical winter that we’ve had,” Spadaccini said. “When setting long-term policy, don’t overreact to short term situations.”

During the public comment portion of the meeting a resident raised a concern about the traffic signal in front of that she said posed a danger to students and pedestrians in the community because it turned green and flashed a walk signal at the same time, meaning people crossed the street as cars could theoretically be turning into them.

Shanley said it was an issue that the town was aware of and had been aware of for a number of years, but that that portion of New State Road was a state owned road, so the light was controlled by the Connecticut Department of Transportation. Shanley said he believed the state planned to replace the signal with one that offered an exclusive walking period for pedestrians as part of a $5.3 million currently underway in the area, but that he did not know when the new signal would be in place.