A citizens’ citizen honored
Virginia Scanlon is my new hero.
A citizen’s citizen.
The 68-year-old Eau Claire woman is refusing to remove snow thrown by city plows onto the sidewalk in front of her 11th Street home.
“It is my responsibility to clean off snow when snow falls. It is not my responsibility to shovel off snow the city pushed on. I feel I am being used as labor for the city and not being compensated,” Scanlon said. “That snow belongs to the city, and their sidewalk can store it.”
Shoveling snow is hard work, but Scanlon’s location makes the task even more daunting. Officials acknowledge this but say a city ordinance requires property owners to clean sidewalks within 24 hours after a snowfall.
The sidewalk in front of Scanlon’s yard directly abuts 11thStreet, with no boulevard. On the other side is a retaining wall because her home sits on a hill, a situation some of her neighbors share.
Scanlon is upset her side of the street lacks a boulevard, where snow could be moved easily, while a boulevard is on the other side where residences have flat lawns. She must shovel snow up and over the retaining wall she estimated at 3 1/2 to 4 feet high.
“At 68, my arms are getting old,” she said.
Long ago, Scanlon said, Scanlon’sstreet had boulevards on both sides.
Amundsonnotes the street was widened to provide parking spaces, and there isn’t enough room for a boulevard with the hill on her side.
Hiring a snow removal service would be difficult for Scanlon, a widow who is a caregiver for a healthcare facility and lives with a daughter who has health problems. “Do you think I’m working because I have money? I’m 68.”
Property owners could receive a citation each time they do not remove snow and ice from sidewalks. Each violation is $213.10, on top of fees the city charges for cleaning the sidewalk, Barnhardt said.
The city doesn’t inspect everybody’s sidewalks but acts upon complaints, he said, adding the city will send more than 600 letters a year to people who violate the ordinance.
But Scanlon said that if the city fines her, she will submit a bill for her past snow removal work.
Oh man … if I had a house that use to have a boulevard for snow removal, and the city took it away, and then started plowing heavy street snow on my sidewalk that I had to lift shovel by shovel over a four foot retaining wall … I wouldn’t be as calm as Virginia is.
Virgina you are a saint.
The City of Eau Claire should be ashamed of themselves.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 at 4:47 am and is filed under Local Politics 101. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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