Snow Ordinance enforcement does not start until 24 hours after snow plowing operations cease. Weather conditions can delay the enforcement operations as well. Plowing operations ceased Friday, January 5, 2018 at 5AM. Thank you for your submittal. Chris Webb Dir. Public Health

Christopher Webb (Director of Public Health) assigned this issue to Elsa Zhao (Health Department)

It has been four days since the "snow event." Far greater than 24 hours. The crosswalk is still not cleared, and pedestrians coming from the Middlesex St side have nowhere to cross safely. This is ridiculous.

The city is responsible for clearing out pedestrian/disabled access ramps leading to crosswalks when they become obstructed by plowing operations (the city may not delegate away its ADA obligations). According to our snow clearing ordinance, business owners/residents are responsible for clearing "accumulating" snow, not the massive snow banks created by city plows, typically at these access points. Many of us perform the work of clearing these obstructions voluntarily, and will continue to do so. But not everyone is able and/or willing to take on this voluntary work. Private citizens are not required to do so. The city is in desperate need of a policy regarding plowing and clearing operations as they relate to pedestrian/disabled access points. At a minimum, plow operators should be expected to minimize the creation of snow piles at pedestrian/disabled access points. The city should establish a system for clearing them promptly when they do occur.

In addition, there is nothing in the ordinance regarding the cessation of plowing operations. According to the ordinance, the duty to clear commences 24 hours after accumulation, not 24 hours after cessation of plowing operations. So residents/business owners must clear "accumulating" snow on sidewalks more promptly than the city has repeatedly claimed they must.

The misinformation on both fronts being put forward by the city is troubling. The city is telling private citizens that they may delay clearing beyond the time limit set by ordinance, while simultaneously improperly demanding that residents clear obstructions created by the city, and failing to deploy city resources to do so itself. The result is the mess we currently have. It should be no surprise that against this backdrop our city remains largely impassable to pedestrians, particularly the disabled.

Sidewalk clearing is in compliance to City Ordnance 11.35 with. Handicap ramps and crosswalks will be addressed in the future.

Thank you for addressing this. I'm very glad to hear that people aren't being fined or told they have to remove snow banks they didn't create. I would like to see DPW be able to take a more active role in these sorts of operations, and that they be provided with the funding and staffing levels to do so. The department's employees seem to work extremely hard. It just seems like there aren't enough of them. Proper funding for the department so it can hire additional workers, who are probably going to be Malden residents, is a win-win-win for the city.

Ghazi, I don't know who you are, but I appreciate every single post that I have read from you. Thank you.

Thanks for fixing this request!