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| Crosswalk at E. Broad St. and Central Ave. |
The picture you see is of the crosswalk at E. Broad St. and Central Ave. in front of Victoria's Secret. It appears that this pedestrian is attempting to traverse a mound of ice and snow blocking the crosswalk. The mound of snow has existed for over three weeks.
To compound the problem, there is a handicapped ramp buried under all that mess. Should a handicapped person in a wheelchair need to use this crosswalk, they are out of luck. Unless, they push a Craftsman 26 inch dual track motorized snowblower in front of them.
Keep up the good work Mayor Skibitsky on your promise of no diminished services in 2011. In the past, the snow would have been removed by DPW crews and transported to the Memorial Pool parking lot for disposal/melt off.
An email containing this picture was sent to Mayor Skibitsky and Town Council Members earlier today. No response has been received yet.
UPDATE: At approximately 10:48 am today, the above picture was sent to the Mayor and Town Council asking for an explanation as to why this condition existed. Six minutes after this story was posted tonight at 5:33 pm, an email response was received at 5:39 pm from Mayor Skibitsky's Executive Assistant Joan Thermann with an explanation.
"Your e-mail has been received by the Mayor and Council. Thank you for your
report. The abutting property owner will be notified of their
responsibility in this matter."
Joan Thermann
Executive Assistant to Mayor Andrew Skibitsky
Nice try, Mayor. Your response would suggest to blog readers that it is the responsibility of of "the abutting property owner" to remove the snow. True, if that snow was on the SIDEWALK. But it APPEARS that the snow pictured is in the ROADWAY. Is this still "the abutting property owner's responsibility ????
ReplyDeleteWhat does Victoria Secret have to say about this? Or the Downtown Business Asso?
ReplyDeleteWhy doesn't the downtown assoc take some of its big uncutable budget and pay privately to remove the snow?They control close to 4 hundred thousand dollars budget paid for by downtown property owners.Instead of relying only on strapped DPW department why not hire out to get the job done so people can park & walk & shop downtown.There is always plenty of money to support promotions and organizations from all over town and outside of town too.Reading back about their flower contest for 2 years I can find no budget published.You can piece together that there could have been between 5-10 grand spent each year on it.They hire out of town Gillete Cascade Tree Service for some of this work.Why didn't they hire private help when there was the largest snowfall in over 14 years?There was a state of emergency with plenty of warning.There should have been a back up plan by the business district.They hire out and out of town for every other thing why not do something to help the stores & shoppers.The Mayor should tell them to start by only hiring Westfield businesses that need the work.
ReplyDeleteSince the town put in ADA approved ramps for handicapped access to the crosswalks, I wonder who is ultimately responsible to clean them, the town, or the property owner.....
ReplyDeleteSince we are on the subject of snow removal, I think we need to address Town Code Section 24-5 Removal of snow and ice from sidewalks. The owner or tenant of land abutting or bordering upon the sidewalk and gutters of public streets, avenues, and highways in the town shall remove all snow and ice from any laid sidewalk of any kind in front of such land within twelve hours of daylight after the same shall fall or be formed thereon. Where ice is frozen to the sidewalk it shall be removed or covered with sand or ashes.
ReplyDeleteIf the above is supposed to be enforced, why do I have problems walking in my neighborhood?
So where does my obligation end? If i live on a corner and have a crosswalk and handicap ramps where does my responsibility end? I only ask because the Town plow packs in the corner and misses the curb by 4-5 feet. I shovel to the curb and then get to work. I don't have the time to clear town streets.
ReplyDeleteAny response from the town???? What does it look like now? Did they clear it?
ReplyDeleteDid Victoria Secret ever respond? Is their crosswalk clear now?
ReplyDelete