Somerville residents gave members of the Board of Alderman a collective earful last week as they voiced their grievances concerning the city’s current snow removal ordinance. — Photo by Claudia Ferro

By Douglas Yu

Somerville residents expressed their complaints about the city’s snow removal ordinance last Wednesday as the Board of Alderman held a public meeting at Somerville City Hall to crowd source ideas from the community for the improvement of the ordinance.

Even though New England has experienced a series of historic snowstorms recently, the seemingly flawed snow removal policy is not unique to this year.

“Each year, there comes a point where the city declares ‘Mission accomplished,’ stops plowing, and we are always left with unsafe conditions on the side streets. Yes, safety vehicles can technically get by, but that doesn’t equal overall road safety,” Somerville resident Rob Cheyne wrote in an email to the city.

Cheyne, who lives on High Street in West Somerville, said no streets in the community should get ignored especially when city has the equipment to remove the snow.

In addition, Cheyne brought up the issue regarding the emergency parking policy. “Having emergency parking stay consistently on one side of the street for the entire season is a huge contributor to this problem. It encourages people to leave their cars buried in snow, which greatly exacerbates the issue,” Cheyne wrote in the email, citing that the sides of roads without cars should be cleared of snow between the storms so that cars could park there again.

Cheyne mentioned that in late January there was a single private contractor plow that came to his street and cleared up in one pass. However, the snowplow didn’t help clean up the large accumulating snow banks on both sides of the street. The next morning, he woke up to find that his driveway was completely blocked by the snow that a large city plow dumped from the main street, and the sidewalks once again were covered by the toppled snow banks.

Alderman At Large Mary Jo Rossetti led the public hearing that allowed residents to air their grievances regarding the current ordinance. — Photo by Douglas Yu

In late February, Alderman Bill White forwarded Cheyne’s emails about hazardous conditions on numerous streets in the Powder House Blvd. and Route 16 area to one of the mayor’s aids. Cheyne, however, received “radio silence” from the city.

The ordinance requires the owner, occupant, tenant, or agent in charge of any land or building abutting a sidewalk in the City of Somerville to remove all snow and/or ice from abutting sidewalks no later than 10:00 a.m. if the snow ceases to fall after sunset and before sunrise of the previous evening, or no later than 10:00 p.m. if the snow ceases to fall after sunrise.

Alderman At Large Mary Jo Rossetti, who led the public hearing, said the 10:00 a.m. timeframe was a problem for many people for various reasons. “So the committee, without coming to any decisions or consensus, was tossing around one suggestion,” she said, explaining that some city officials have suggested residents should clean up the snow 24 hours after the end of the storm.

Chair of the Somerville Commission for Persons with Disabilities, Colin Killick, also spoke at the meeting. For people with disabilities, uncleared sidewalks are a tremendous challenge.

“You may have seen the news. In Quincy two weeks ago, a woman was so desperate to leave her house to get to her doctor’s appointment. She built a plow in front of her wheelchair, so she could drive through snow,” Killick said.

At the same time, Killick also brought other voices from the disabled community to the public hearing. A report from Somerville Cambridge Elder Services says that their clients are unable to get to important medical appointments, pick up prescriptions from the pharmacy, or get food at the grocery store.

Hala Jadallah, who lives on Hall  Ave., showed The Somerville Times pictures of her blocked driveway caused by three snow banks. She said that her mother hadn’t been feeling well last month. Every time she went to take her mother to the grocery store, she had to park her car in the middle of the road because of the blocked driveway.

Finally, when Jadallah got home from the meeting that night, she was excited to find out that her street was cleared, as stated in a voice mail she left with The Somerville Times.

Other residents at the meeting also challenged the city to provide better quality community service during the severe snow days.

Rossetti announced the next snow removal ordinance meeting was postponed to March 9 due to the snowstorm, and it may take a month for the city to make a final decision on changing the ordinance.