HALIFAX – Residents along a Halifax street are asking city crews not to plow their sidewalk. Yes, you read that right.
Mike Kilfoil, one of the residents along Henry Street, put a sign up yesterday that reads: “No sidewalk plows. We’ve got this!”
“This way we hopefully prevent the plow from coming through and undoing what the citizens are doing,” said Kilfoil. “They don’t have the proper equipment to heave (the snow) across the side, the contractors don’t have it, so it’s easier to do it by hand.”
Kilfoil admits he put the sign up partly out of frustration with what he says is the poor job sidewalk plows have done in their area, but also because he truly believes residents can do a better job.
“Two years ago when we were doing it ourselves, the citizens did a much better job, they had a much higher level of concern and responsibility for it,” he said, adding he believes more residents should take charge and clear the snow themselves.
“It’s what you have to do, these are extraordinary circumstances, no point sitting on a mountain of snow and crying for the city to do it, it’s gotta be done,” he said.
On Wednesday evening, Halifax Regional Municipality sent out a PSA thanking residents for their assistance, and also warning them that “sidewalk clearing will be particularly challenging,” adding it will be days before crews can start to make progress. Those challenging conditions are the reason why many residents, like Paul Vienneau, are grabbing a shovel and helping out.
Many #Halifax residents, like @paulvienneau1, helped with sidewalk clearing today https://t.co/V03HwOBzd8
— Mayya Assouad (@Mayya_Global) March 19, 2015Vienneau also organized the “Halifax Big Digout,” an event meant to encourage Haligonians to help with the cleanup in their neighbourhoods.
“Just go out around your house, meet your neighbours, work together and it’s going to take a while, just be patient,” said Vienneau. “This is not something we’re going to get out of in 5 hours or 5 days, so I’m hoping this is going to be an ongoing thing.”
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