It’s a frustrating situation. The mere fact that one has to dig out after a whopper of a snowstorm is bad enough, but when it just keeps coming – oh, the misery!

Compound that misery with the unfortunate realization that city or privately contracted snow plows have piled the stuff right back onto your freshly scraped clean sidewalk – it’s enough to send you right up the wall.

In actuality, it sends you right back outside, with shovel in hand, duty bound to clear the path and make way for more of the white terror to strike down its wrath.

Is it fair? It doesn’t seem so. The city requires – under penalty of fines – each resident to make sure the sidewalks outside their homes are shoveled after a significant amount of snowfall. Even if the people clearing the streets accidentally – we hope – throw some of it back onto your walkway.

No, it doesn’t seem fair at all. Especially for those who find it hard to do the initial clearing in the first place. The elderly and disabled in particular would be hard pressed to keep up with it during the severe winter storms that often hit the city.

Some hire the more able-bodied to clear their sidewalks, but few can afford to keep paying for that time after time, just because of a few careless or uncaring snow plow operators who somehow manage to put the stuff in the wrong place.

We hope that the city takes a good look at the issue – as they have indicated that they would – and find some reasonable solution to a very real problem for some of our residents.

It’s only fair.