Old Blogs - Milwaukee: Snow Removal - 2/26/07

Snow Removal

In Milwaukee we are supposed to remove snow from the sidewalks so that people in wheelchairs can get by. If the snow is not removed from the sidewalk within 24 hours, the owner of the property is charged a fee.

This sounds resonable, however, we recently received a decent snowfall that made snow removal a bit of a pain... literally (my back is killing me). After 2 hours of mid-morning shoveling, I woke up the next morning to find that the city snowplows had undone all of my hard work. The plows ended up spraying all of the snow from the street into my yard and all over my sidewalk. This street snow was thicker and heavier than then snow I had shoveled earlier and meant that I had to reshovel everything again!

Also, because my neighbors are elderly and have had a number of strokes, it means that unless I don't shovel their sidewalk too, they will get a fine! So... after 2 hours of shoveling, I ended up having to go back out and reshovel my walks and theirs. Thank you city snow plows. Thanks a heap!

If I am expected to have the snow off of the sidewalk within 24 hours, for what I assume would be daytime use, then how about plowing the streets BEFORE everyone gets our their shovels!?