Mr. Peter Angelo, P.Eng.
Director of Engineering Services
Municipality of Port Hope
Re: Snow Clearing -- Wellington Street Sidewalks
Good afternoon Mr. Angelo:
This has been quite a winter. You and your staff have been taxed to the limit and beyond by the very snowy weather. Even so, I am doing as you suggested in your timely response to my previous message and restating my concerns for public safety with respect to the sidewalks on Wellington Street.
Below is a summary of the concerns that I stated in my message, sent January 18, 2009
The process of plowing driveways at apartment buildings along the west side of Wellington Street results in the piling of snow directly on the sidewalk. As of Sunday morning, January 18, this was the situation:
- apartment at 50 Wellington: sidewalk completely blocked by a snow pile at the end of the driveway;
- apartment just south of 50: sidewalk in front of the building partially or completely covered by a snow pile;
- apartment at 16/18 Wellington: sidewalk completely blocked by a snow pile at the end of the driveway.
The snow piles at these locations are high and hard packed and iced. They need to be removed, but that removal appears to require mechanical equipment.
I want to report to you the situation as it was about noon today:
- apartment at 50 Wellington: the sidewalk remains completely blocked by snow piled at the end of the driveway;
- apartment at 48 Wellington: the sidewalk in front of the building is completely covered by a snow pile.
These two problems, both of which have existed since mid-December, have gotten worse with each snowfall and each snow plowing. Attached are 8 photographs, taken early this afternoon, that show the extent to which the sidewalks at 48 and 50 Wellington Street are covered and blocked. [NB. photographs are shown in a separate post to the Wellington Heights blog.]
In my previous message I requested of you, in the interest of public safety, these two things:
1) that your staff use whatever methods necessary to remove the piles of snow currently blocking the Wellington Street sidewalk at these locations;
2) that you work with the owners and managers of Wellington Street apartment buildings to ensure that sidewalks remain unblocked for the rest of this winter.
Obviously, you and your staff have not been able to deal with this matter:
1) They have not removed the piles of snow that have been blocking the sidewalks for many weeks at 48 and 50 Wellington Street;
2) You have not been successful in convincing the owners and managers of these two apartment buildings to keep their sidewalks unblocked.
I had thought that you were prevented from dealing with these problems by the necessity of attending to the great amount of snow that has fallen in December and January. However, this morning I received a letter from Tara Archambault, which stated the following:
The areas of concern noted in your correspondence have been investigated by staff and appropriate recourse has been implemented to ensure that By Law 52/97 is complied with.
Is Ms. Archambault trying to tell me, in some strange, coded language, that you have no authority to act as I have requested on behalf of the safety of the dozens of families and the many dozens of children who daily must walk in the street to circumvent the snow dumped on Wellington Street sidewalks? If not that, then what exactly is Ms. Archambault saying?
Regards for a snow-free February,
