Shoveling snow needed

Dear Editor:

I want to express both my frustration and concern because of the snow that was still on the sidewalks (by Friday). I walked through town both on Tuesday and again Friday, and was not impressed by the homeowners, business owners (and that would include the La Conner Weekly News), even the city (sidewalk on the west side of the public parking lot), who did not have the sidewalk clean. I found it so ironic that someone would shovel a path from their door to their mail/paper box, but wouldn’t shovel the sidewalk. This type of behavior is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Kudos to the residents of Tillinghast Drive, who had clean sidewalks, and I saw someone shoveling on Tuesday.

I am concerned for our merchants and the impression these “sloppy” sidewalks give to tourists and even locals. I drove along Maple on Thursday and someone was walking in the street because the sidewalks were impassable. The person had to get off the road before I got there, and I didn’t have much room because of oncoming traffic and snow along the side of the road. Not a safe situation for anyone.

Even today, there were sidewalks in the downtown area that still had snow on them. It is not the responsibility of the city to clean those up. Kudos to Nasty Jack’s for cleaning their sidewalk on Tuesday.

I can just hear everyone saying that these snows don’t happen often: remember February, 2019? We are all happy to see the city being proactive by putting down sandbags along the channel by the Moore Clark building, just in case high tides cause flooding, but believe that, we as residents, have a responsibility to be proactive about the snow on our sidewalks.

I looked up snow etiquette today, and some of the highlights are:

1. Shovel snow in front of your home.

2. Shovel snow off your car.

3. Don’t throw snow into the street. (I’m sure Public Works appreciates that).

4. Pitch in and help your neighbors.

I’m not suggesting that we become like Seattle and fine homeowners $100 for not shoveling their sidewalks, but I do like that it raises awareness of the problem. Trust me, if you are a regular walker in town, you would understand the problem.

While I live on a street without a sidewalk, I would have cleared the snow, if there was one.

Sincerely,

Corrine Reynolds