The Town of The Blue Mountains (TBM) is exploring options to expand winter sidewalk maintenance, following a Nov. 17 letter from the Windfall condominium board that spoke to snow removal issues within the development and generated discussion on the town-wide issue of maintaining municipally owned sidewalks.
“During the winter months, when sidewalks are not cleared, residents will use the roadways to pass the sidewalks that are not clear or in an icy condition or state,” stated the letter, which was discussed by council Jan. 17.
“Regardless of the reasons, financial, practical or otherwise, it is our position that the town has a duty of care to maintain a safe environment for all residents of Windfall development.”
Following discussion, council directed staff to prepare a report outlining the state of sidewalk maintenance across TBM, which was brought to council Feb. 15.
The report identified 46 kilometers of sidewalks within the town, including:
- 20 kilometers of town sidewalks that currently receive winter maintenance
- 10.8 kilometers of town sidewalks that do not receive winter maintenance
- 4.6 kilometers of privately owned sidewalks
- 10.6 kilometers of currently unassumed sidewalks, that will be assumed by the town at a later date
- An additional 23 kilometers of winter maintenance on the Georgian Trail
Council moved for staff to develop a strategy to extend sidewalk maintenance for all public sidewalks within the town, to be brought back for council consideration, with the goal of implementing the strategy by the winter of 2024/25.
Currently, the town has two contracts for winter sidewalk maintenance, with one servicing sidewalks in Clarksburg and Thornbury, and the other servicing commercial sidewalks in the Blue Mountain Village area. Both contracts are set to expire in spring 2024.
Director of Operations Shawn Carey said that the town is going to explore options for carrying out snow removal services with municipal staff in the future, as opposed to contractors.
“We face some labour shortages, and one of the bigger factors is increasing insurance costs, particularly for contractors working on municipal or public property. That's really resulted in some local contractors stepping away from the business entirely,” Carey said. “Based on that, we are going to be looking… at what it would take to bring some of those services in-house.”
Coun. Rob Sampson expressed concern about unassumed sidewalks that the town will become responsible for once developments are complete.
“I'm just wondering whether we need to be mindful of… this type of workload because there are quite a few Craigleith developments that have either gone through the development process or about to enter [it], that do have sidewalks and significantly add to the workload in that part of town,” he said. “There are others that are coming.”
Sampson also wished to clarify concerns brought to staff and council about clearing sidewalks in the Windfall development, as they thought the sidewalks were private property.
“I did get a couple of notes from residents who said, ‘Why are you considering doing sidewalk maintenance for condo-owned property at Windfall?’” said Coun. Rob Sampson. “That's not the case - those are all town-owned or will be town-owned sidewalks.”
