January 26, 2006

By Robert Mihalek

During a discussion last week about snow removal downtown, a Council member said that the Village should expect property owners to clear snow and ice from their walks.

At Council’s meeting on Jan. 17, Council member Bruce Rickenbach said that the Village should ask property owners to cooperate with the Village’s snow removal ordinance, which requires villagers to remove “accumulated snow and ice from the sidewalks” within 24 hours of the “cessation of a snow or ice fall.”

He said snow removal is the responsibility of both the Village government and Yellow Springs citizens.

However, Rickenbach cautioned the Village about enforcing the ordinance in a heavy-handed manner. He said he would hate to see the Village deciding “willy-nilly to systematically enforce with an iron hand” the snow-removal ordinance.

He also stressed that the Village should inform property owners of an Ohio Supreme Court ruling that said property owners have no duty to eliminate natural accumulations of ice and snow from sidewalks. Property owners who follow an ordinance that requires snow and ice removal can still be held liable if someone falls on their property, Rickenbach wrote in a memo to Council that included information he researched.

“It’s a double whammy for property owners,” he said.

The discussion of snow removal focused mainly on downtown sidewalks. Council agreed to discuss the matter after local resident Helen Eier last month raised concerns about the lack of adequate snow and ice removal.

Pointing out that it’s the middle of winter, Rickenbach and Village Manager Eric Swansen said Council and Village staff should review the Village’s snow removal practices and responsibilities, including costs.

Rickenbach and Council member Karen Wintrow said Council would discuss snow removal during its goal-setting meeting on Monday, Jan. 30.

Swansen said that snow needs to be removed from downtown sidewalks so that people can shop. Otherwise, he said, people might get in their cars and shop out of town. The Village should discuss the issue with downtown business owners, Swansen said.

Assistant Village Planner Ed Amrhein, who is responsible for enforcing Village ordinances, said that there is a “critical mass of residents in Yellow Springs” who expect the snow-removal ordinance to be followed.

Swansen responded by saying the Village had to review its snow-removal capabilities. “We don’t have unlimited resources, we have limited resources,” he said.

Local resident Ray Olds said businesses on Xenia Avenue should be “partly responsible for keeping the sidewalks clear.”

Rickenbach said the Village, if possible, could begin to declare snow emergencies and require the removal of vehicles from downtown streets to assist in the removing of snow.

The Village’s traffic code gives the Village manager authority to declare a snow emergency, which would prohibit vehicles from parking on designated “snow emergency routes.”

Mark Alexander, who runs 2 Clowns Mowing and is providing snow removal services for several downtown businesses, said the problem is that there is no place to put snow once it’s cleared from downtown sidewalks.

Contact: rmihalek@ysnews.com