By John Hill Journal Staff Writer
CRANSTON — The City Council celebrated the return of warm weather this week by enacting an ordinance that sets new snow shoveling requirements on residents and property owners.
City ordinances already require the owner or occupant of a building or land on a city street with a sidewalk to clear that sidewalk within 24 hours of the snowfall ending.
The council voted unanimously Monday night to mandate that any sidewalk be cleared at least 3 feet across and that any driveway entrances be cleared as well.
The ordinance doesn’t specify who does the clearing, only that it be done. It did not change the penalty for failure to comply with the ordinance, which is a $250 fine for a first offense and $500 for second and subsequent violations.
The change was proposed by Ward 1 Councilman Steven A. Stycos, who said he had a conversation with an acquaintance who uses a wheelchair and who told him it was difficult to negotiate city sidewalks in the winter because they were often not shoveled wide enough. He said another issue was with uncleared curb cuts, where a driveway either from a house or business, cuts into the curb to let traffic in and out.
May is the month when the council’s thoughts seem to turn to snow shoveling. It changed the city’s snow shoveling ordinance in May 2015 as well.
That amendment, also submitted by Stycos, reduced the exemptions one could use to avoid complying with the ordinance, upping to age 62 those who be exempt and requiring those who claimed a medical condition precluded them from shoveling to have a doctor’s letter stating that fact.