It’s difficult to talk about snow removal in July, something the only speaker at a Tuesday County Council public hearing on the subject acknowledged.
“But let’s think back six months and let’s think forward about five or six months to what the situation will be,” said Carl Custer, a Bethesda resident who said Montgomery County has been negligent in enforcing its 24-hour property owner rule for clearing sidewalks of snow and ice.
The public hearing was about a bill introduced by Hans Riemer and Nancy Navarro in April. A snow-filled winter that in some cases left sidewalks and bus stops full of snow and ice, also meant pedestrians walking in the streets days after a snow event.
The bill, as proposed, would try to beef up enforcement and public awareness of the 24-hour sidewalk snow and ice removal law. It would also require plans for county snow removal at bus stops, near schools and along state highways, create a “targeted public education campaign about sidewalk and snow removal for owners of property in the County” and designate “pedestrian priority routes” for more direct education and enforcement.
Riemer said one of the main goals of the legislation is to figure out what to do when a homeowner isn’t able to clear a stretch of sidewalk that’s also a key pedestrian route.
“If they have a long stretch and they’re older, on a state highway that gets constantly plowed up right near a high school, the answer can’t be to cite that person every time there’s a storm and let the kids walk in the street,” Riemer said Tuesday. “There’s got to be something more effective than that. That’s the hardest challenge.”
The bill will head to the Council’s Transportation Committee at a yet-to-be scheduled date and written public comment will be accepted until Sept. 3.
Roger Berliner, who chairs the Transportation Committee, raised a concern about who’s responsible for snow removal when a county plow moves street snow onto a sidewalk.
“When we get these big snow storms, where does the snow go,” Berliner asked. “Sometimes things just aren’t perfect.”
Council President Craig Rice has also expressed concerns about sidewalk snow removal in general. The bill seems likely to go through some revisions.
But even in the heat and humidity of July, Custer told the Council something must be done.
“I think the county can take positive action,” Custer said. “They can better publicize the need for people to keep snow off of their sidewalks. It need not be onerous, we just need to be educated better.”
