Town Will Enforce Snow Removal Ordinance: East Brunswick Mayor

EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — The past few weeks have been rough for New Jersey as two weekend nor’easters dumped inches of snow across towns.

At Monday’s town council meeting, East Brunswick Mayor Brad Cohen said residents were responsible for cleaning snow and ice off their sidewalks.

He said the town will start taking the snow ordinances “more seriously” to ensure sidewalks are safe to walk.

“It is the residents’ responsibility to clear sidewalks within a prescribed period of time after a snowstorm,” said Cohen.

He said with schools reopening, children are increasingly using the sidewalks and so are people walking to get to religious institutions.

“And so those ordinances will be enforced. We just want everybody to be safe and we're doing it fairly. No one street, no one section of town is given any preferential treatment over any other,” said Cohen.

The township has been posting links to snow removal ordinances on its Facebook page for residents.

Cohen also said it was the town’s responsibility to make roads safe after a snowstorm. And with plow crews clearing the roads, residents might find snow from the streets on their driveways.

“It's just physics, there's no way you cannot do that. So... get a shovel, and dig yourself out, because there's just no other way that we could do that,” he said. He also clarified that the town will not clear driveway openings.

According to the ordinance residents are not supposed to plow or blow snow into public streets. Instead they should pile it the yard or the area between the curb and sidewalk.

Meanwhile township administrator Joseph Criscuolo thanked the operators, the recreation department, and the entire East Brunswick who worked through the two storms.

“They really did a stellar job getting through the town,” said Criscuolo. “It's not an easy task to do.”

You can click here to read the township's snow removal ordinance.

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