Snow removal from city streets and sidewalks is handled by the City of Kingston, but some residents are questioning whether the city is able to clear the snow in a timely way.
Michel Buzzell, 71, is frustrated by what he feels is a lack of attention to clearing sidewalks in his neighbourhood. He has been living at 80 Virginia Street for the past two years.
“Who makes a decision to plow on this side of the street and not the other?” he asks.
“Any sidewalks that experience a high level of pedestrians are the priorities,” explains Bill Linnen, operations manager at Public Works. “And as those sidewalks and those routes are completed, then we move into secondary priorities, which are residential sidewalks.”
Buzzell is especially concerned for the vulnerable in the community with limited mobility who need sidewalks to be clear in order to get around.
“What hurts me is that I saw a person pushing her husband in a wheelchair and the only mode of transportation that they have is the bus, but they had to get to the bus stop,” Buzzell said, adding he’s seen residents struggle the most in the Connacher Street area.
Kingstonians appear to be split over the effectiveness of the city’s snow removal process.
“I find it really good, pretty quick after snowfall on Christmas Day,” resident Olivia Manning said. “It was really stormy, but even still they had some snow removal done.”
The City of Kingston has 28 snowplows that work to clear nearly 1,800 kilometres of road lanes. The city also has 15 sidewalk plows that remove 600 km of sidewalk snow.
Kingston is one of few Ontario cities that remove snow off residential sidewalks; many larger municipalities often expect residents to remove the snow from sidewalks around their homes.
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