BarrieToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Please include your daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following letter is in response to a story titled 'Who should clear snow from downtown sidewalks? Question falls to committee,' published on Dec. 2.
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I would like to say that the current system of clearing the downtown sidewalks of snow is definitely not working. I use a wheelchair for mobility and under the current clearing system there are days on end where I am unable to navigate the sidewalks in my wheelchair.
My complaints can be attested by the over 100 emails and calls that I have sent/made to the city over the past five winters. I also have over 100 photos backing up my complaints and concerns. Due to COVID, I was only downtown a few time over the past two winters yet I still saw issues with snow removal on the sidewalks.
My understanding with the current guidelines is that business owners have until 10 a.m. to have the sidewalks cleared in front of their business. If the snow isn't cleared by 10 a.m., Enforcement Services can issue a notice to have the sidewalks cleared or the City of Barrie will clear it and charge the property owner.
Unfortunately, I'm not aware of the time between the notice being issued and the sidewalks getting cleared by the City of Barrie. I can speak from experience that it can take days even weeks before the sidewalks are cleared in front of businesses, especially in front of businesses that are closed and even property owned by the City of Barrie.
When Keenan Aylwin was first elected I remember speaking to him, four or five years ago now, about this very issue. He advised me that he was discussing this with the BIA and one solution mentioned was hiring a crew to clear the sidewalks for the businesses. That hasn't appeared to have gotten anywhere.
The current system is not obviously not working and something definitely has to be done to fix this issue. This is 2021 going into 2022 and there are still mobility/accessibility issues on the downtown sidewalks which has to be addressed and the current system needs to change.
Rick Fekete
Barrie
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