Residents responsible for clearing sidewalks

While the City of Columbia’s snowplows have been put away for the weekend, snow is still covering many of city’s sidewalks.

According to city ordinance, property owners are responsible for clearing the sidewalks in front of and adjacent to their property lines.

The city said its the “neighborly” thing to do since most resident will at some point be a pedestrian during the day. Failing to clear the right-of-way is also a misdemeanor.

There are agencies that provide services for elderly or otherwise disabled residents to get assistance in clearing out the snow and ice. Residents can contact the Services for Independent Living (SIL) (573) 874-1646 or the Boone County Council on Aging at 443-1111.

The city says renters should contact their landlords to find out if they are responsible for clearing the sidewalks or if the property owner will handle it.

The city’s snowplows have also stopped working for the weekend. First and second priority routes are clear and the city does not work overtime for residential streets when there is less than four inches of snow.

As of Friday afternoon, a public works engineer told ABC 17 News he did not believe all residential streets had been plowed. He did say crews had checked most of the roads and they had been deemed “passable.”

“It’s not going to be gray from one curb all the way to the other curb,” said Richard Stone, with public works. “That’s not what we can do because it takes heat and we’ve had low temperatures today so salt is really is ineffective until those temperatures raise anyway. So what we want to do is make sure everybody can get around, be prudent with our resources. Right now, the roads are at that passable condition.”