Cloverdale senior Ross MacDonald is unhappy with the City of Surrey after the greenspace walkways and surrounding sidewalks near his home were not cleared of snow over the holidays and the first week of January.
“The City of Surrey was neglectful of clearing the snow from the greenspace walkways throughout the city,” he said. “With children returning to schools, the packed ice and snow on these walkways was treacherous to us older citizens that walk their grandchildren to and from school.”
MacDonald lives right next to the greenspace that begins at 65 Avenue, runs north between 195 Street and 196 Street, and ends at Katzie Elementary School, north of 68A Avenue.
MacDonald said he walked his granddaughter to school on the first day back (Jan. 10) and the greenspace pathways were sheer ice.
“The sidewalks in front of the greenspace were ice too. They were not shovelled.”
MacDonald said he almost took a spill.
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“I had back surgery last year. I have a couple bars and four screws in there. The last thing I need to do is a whoopty-doo,” he said. “If someone takes a fall there, particularly a senior like myself—because there are a lot of grandparents like myself who walk their grandkids to school—that could be life-altering.”
He said city workers mow the grass all along the pathways and he’s questioning why the city can’t clear the pathways of snow and the sidewalks surrounding their entrance points.
“It’s been like this for a couple of weeks,” he said. “People use those pathways to walk on all the time and the the city needs to be proactive on snow removal there.”
He added that it’s a homeowner’s responsibility to clear the sidewalks in front of their homes of snow and that bylaw can fine homeowners if they don’t clear that snow away.
“So why isn’t the city clearing the sidewalks that they are responsible for?”
He feels the city should have been out there on day one clearing those sidewalks and pathways and not waiting three weeks for them to turn into ice.
“We’re not talking about snow plows here, this could be done with snowblower.”
He said people are now walking on the grass because the pathways are still icy.
MacDonald filled out a report on the City of Surrey website, but said the area has still not been cleared.
The Cloverdale Reporter reached out to the Operations Division (the people responsible for snow and ice control) of the City of Surrey’s Engineering Department for comment, but did not hear back by publication time.
editor@cloverdalereporter.com
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