Proposed Little Silver Snow Removal Ordinance Incites a Flurry of Disapproval

Little Silver citizens packed the mayor and council meeting Monday, April 4, to voice their opinion on a snow removal ordinance that requires all homeowners with sidewalks on their property to clear at least two feet of snow from the sidewalk within 24 hours of snowfall, or be served a fine. 

The ordinance further stipulates that an additional 48 hours of time will be added if the weather conditions are severe enough for a State of Emergency. If the resident refuses to clear their sidewalk of snowfall or salt it when it becomes icy, the ordinance claims the owner will be “subject to a fine of $50 upon first offense, plus court costs and $200 for each subsequent offense.” If the property is of a non-residential building the cost of the fine is $250 plus court costs, according to the ordinance.

The issue of snow removal on Little Silver sidewalks has been discussed and put aside for numerous years, according to councilman Daniel O’Hern. In the wake of the massive snowfall that slammed Little Silver this winter, residents Michael and Eileen McGann saw fit to raise the issue again. Their presentation .

Supporters feel the ordinance would be an important public safety measure, as over the winter many homeowners did not assume the responsibility of clearing the sidewalks on their property, leaving children and commuters to walk in the streets. Rumson, Fair Haven, Red Bank and Oceanport all currently have a comparable snow removal law in effect.

The public hearing on the Chapter 12, Section 7 ordinance was a platform for borough residents to express their concern and sentiment on the proposed ordinance; the majority of public comment came from property owners responsible for sidewalks and the overall consensus was that the ordinance is biased and unfair. 

"Approximately 75 percent of people in town do not have sidewalks," stated Ed Romolo, of Rivers Edge Road. "It's unfair to burden that group of people that do have sidewalks."

"You can't compare us to Red Bank, because I don't know of any place in Red Bank that doesn't have a sidewalk," said Romolo. "Fair Haven is the same way. It was brought up before the Rumson council and because of the number of homes without sidewalks and the number of senior citizens, they tabled it and it was a dead issue, and I think that's the area we should follow here."

Former Chief of Police and Chief Safety Officer Greg Strand told the mayor and council that he had counted 640 homes in Little Silver that have a sidewalk on their property. “I don’t know how you would ever enforce this thing,” Strand said. “How could you tell, when the snow comes, who has a sidewalk and who doesn’t?”

Strand went on to further say that since every side of the street does not have a sidewalk, the children are still going to wind up walking in the road. 

Homeowners with sidewalks felt it was unfair to place the financial and physical burden of clearing a path; when the concern is one of public safety, the town should be responsible, residents expressed. 

The snowplows push snow from the road onto the curbs and sidewalks, creating an additional pile to be moved by the homeowner, which sometimes cannot physically be moved by the individual who owns the home due to age or health issues.

"I think it's terribly unfair that they can put all of that snow on my property and then you're going to fine me if I don't get it removed," said Barbara Lupinski, of George Street.

"I've had the plows dump snow repeatedly onto my sidewalk," said Laura Lupinski, who owns property on Prospect Avenue. "I've hurt my back trying to shovel that snow. I was out there, I was being conscientious. I was trying to shovel it, but what am I supposed to do when my back gives out?"

Mayor Castleman voiced her concern for Lupinski and other residents, noting the strenuous activity of shoveling heavy snow could itself be considered a safety issue.

"I don't have sidewalks, but at the end of my street, there were great mounds of snow, and I could not see to get out on Prospect Avenue without nudging out a great distance. If somebody's going to shovel that pile, I mean, it was 7 feet high. To me, that's a safety issue also."

Another point brought up to the council was the fact that some sidewalks within the borough stop abruptly and do not lead anywhere. Subsequently, residents with a sidewalk that dead-ends felt it is absurd to be required to remove snow from a walkway that leads nowhere. 

Resident Blair Hearth, who described his homestead as "where the puddle starts on those days you can't drive on Seven Bridges Road," wrote a letter to the council stating his case, which involves plowing the sidewalk of a discontinuous piece of property located on Lippincott Road, more than half a mile from his home.

"If I clear my sidewalk like a good citizen, and that's something that I used to do when I bought my house 15 years ago, I came to realize what am I doing it for? It's not going anywhere," said Hearth.

Michael and Eileen McGann were both on hand to express their views in favor of the ordinance, reiterating their public safety stance and asking residents to recall the dangers of pedestrians taking to the streets during snow storms.

"I'm not sure how many people here are driving back from the train station on Silverside and almost hit people because they can't walk on the sidewalks," said Michael McGann. "There was one sidewalk the whole length of Silverside that was shoveled during the snow storm. There was about two houses along Branch Avenue, and yet people are walking back and forth to the train station."

The McGanns, who admitted they do not have a sidewalk on their property, said the requirement to shovel sidewalks would be part of the cost of owning a home.

"Sidewalks are there, they're on those busy streets because of the traffic that's on those streets," said Eileen McGann. "Someone has a right to be on those sidewalks. They have a right to use them."

Darwin Spears, of Lovett Ave, who introduced his address as being "at the epicenter of the drop-off" felt the best way to handle the situation would be to simply build more sidewalks.

"If everybody had sidewalks, I couldn't come up here and complain about me shoveling the sidewalks and the other people across the street that don't have sidewalks," said Spears. "It's not right to have 25 percent of the people doing 100 percent of the lifting."

"What's wrong?" Spears asked. "The county'll give you grants for them. I've asked the county. They'll give you grants for sidewalks."

After another resident echoed Spears' call for more sidewalks, Mayor Castleman explained why she felt it wasn't a workable solution.

"I don't think you all want that in your taxes. It's more expensive to put in sidewalks and curbs than it is to put in a street."

Eileen Hipper, who lives off Silverside Avenue and has a sidewalk, said she didn't want to see people walking in the street, but also found it unreasonable to require residents to remove massive boulders of packed ice and snow which were dumped onto their property by plows.

"We are all concerned with the safety of our community," said Hipper. "The reality of the situation is it's the plows that make this a burden to us. It doesn't have to be a blizzard or a record level of snow. It's a normal snowstorm. Those plows come through and we're just inundated. It's just more than normal people can handle on their own."

Councilman O’Hern said that the council had received pictures of residents who are clearing their driveway and front walks, but not clearing their sidewalks. The ordinance, O’Hern said, is merely to encourage residents to take responsibility of their sidewalks during snowstorms with minimal accumulation. “I understand that there are some people with no capability, but people are not even clearing their walkways in small storms,” O’Hern said.

Councilman Robert C. Neff Jr., spent time researching local laws and drafted Chapter 12, Section 7 in accordance to what is typical for similar towns. 

Neff explained that the town has the discretion to not enforce the ordinance when a major snowstorm hits the area. The ordinance does not require continual maintenance of the sidewalk or to shovel every time they get plowed in, Neff said, the homeowner is only required to remove the snow that has fallen after a storm. 

“I think this is really asking people to remember some courtesy, and to go out there and shovel the sidewalk. No one is looking for draconian enforcement. The ordinance gives the town discretion to say, ‘there is too much out there, we’re not going to enforce it’,” Neff said. “So I think this a reasonable request of folks to make sure people don’t walk in the streets.”

After the public portion of the meeting, the council decided to further investigate the matter and amend the ordinance in order to formulate a more appropriate solution to the snow removal problem.

The adoption of the ordinance was tabled until the council meeting on Monday, May 16.