KALAMAZOO, MI (WKZO AM/FM) – The city of Kalamazoo is taking a new approach to encourage homeowners to clear snow off sidewalks this winter, because the old way hasn’t worked.
They used a grant from billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who has been urging cities to find innovative approaches to solve chronic problems and applied it to this long standing issue. City staff put their heads together, did a survey, looked at all the options and devised this new strategy by looking at the goal they wanted to achieve, clean safe sidewalks, and then worked backwards.
Currently homeowners have 48 hours or risk a ticket. Enforcement was spotty, and the city would have been one of the largest offenders if it had been strictly enforced.
City Planner Christine Anderson says residents feel it’s a big problem, judging from the comments and complaints about snow filled and slippery sidewalks.
Their new plan is to hire a contractor to plow over 14 miles of city sidewalks when it snows, in addition to the 18 miles city crews will plow, and to have that same contractor plow private sidewalks that violate the 48-hour rule, and then bill the owner.
That will bring the total to 33.5 miles plowed along major routes and high traffic areas.
Anderson says they are proposing it now to make sure it’s in place this winter.
Commissioners got a presentation on the plan this week and will take a vote on it at their next meeting.
Anderson says their current enforcement procedure, to warn the homeowner, send out an inspector and then issue a ticket is time consuming, expensive, and doesn’t get the sidewalk cleared.
She says they will have to be flexible to deal with the biggest variable in their equation – Michigan weather. That will mean time extensions for polar vortexes and damaging storms, finding ways to help those with health issues comply, and encouraging folks with big snow blowers to help their neighbors.
Granted, their “innovative” solution is to just throw more money, manpower and time at the problem and hope it works. They will try it out this winter and then tweak it if necessary.
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