Title
ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 45 OF THE DULUTH CITY CODE, 1959, AS AMENDED, REPEALING SECTION 45-57.1.
Body
CITY PROPOSAL:
The city of Duluth does ordain:
Section 1. That Section 45-57.1 of the Duluth City Code, 1959, as amended, is hereby repealed in its entirety.
Section 2. That this ordinance shall take effect 30 days after its passage and publication.
Statement of Purpose
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE: The purpose of this ordinance is to eliminate the requirement that the city remove snow from public sidewalks that ends up on such sidewalks as a result of street plowing operations.
In most parts of the city our operators are able to push snow from streets to the boulevard but in the areas where there is a lack of a boulevard it makes it very difficult for snow plow drivers to put the snow anywhere other than the sidewalk. Street maintenance can sometimes "wing" the snow back beyond the sidewalk as long as there are no obstructions that would prevent this operation (i.e. trees, sign, etc.) Obviously this is not our preferred choice but the snow must go somewhere.
The current city ordinance states that snow placed on a sidewalk from plowing shall be the responsibility of the city to remove. Our difficulty comes down to prioritization our allocation of resources after a snow and ice event. Crews cannot be made available for sidewalks until the following have been plowed: Emergency routes, major collector streets, residential streets, and alleys. With an ever decreasing staff level for street maintenance the reality is that we can seldom get to residential sidewalks before a new snowfall occurs and we begin the process over again.
This amendment would bring our ordinance obligations into line with our available resources and the practicalities of our operations.
Currently the City of Duluth parks department has a sidewalk snow removal program that focuses snow and ice control around schools, high pedestrian and transit areas, this would remain unch...
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