After walking in the Red Wing downtown area, I was shocked at the number of areas on the sidewalks that had not been cleared of snow.
I emailed the mayor and the City Council on the city’s website. Mayor Wilson responded quickly and told me he would check it out. I later received an email from Becky Norton, who told me that due to the number of storms, and the tight budget, the city could not clear the sidewalks in a timely manner. (This was four days after the last snow.)
I also received an email from Evan Brown, who stated that with the budget and lack of personnel they had not been able to get all the downtown sidewalks cleared.
I was not aware that the city was responsible for clearing the sidewalks downtown. I had assumed that it was up to the business owners to remove the snow in front of their property or business.Â
This brings me to this question, why were a lot of the sidewalks clear, while others had not been touched?Â
Two bad ones were the old Associated Bank building and the insurance company north of the bakery. If someone were to fall and get injured due to snow not being removed, does the business owner get sued or does the city?
If residents have to remove snow from their sidewalks within 24 hours of a snow event, why not a business or property owner?
With the push to revitalize the downtown and provide funding to property owners to restore their buildings and create housing in the downtown area, is this going to be an ongoing issue? Parking and the ability to safely navigate to shopping, entertainment, and eating establishments are critical to reach these lofty goals.
Let’s save some taxpayer money, and make the property owners responsible for clearing their sidewalks.
(1) comment
I think downtown stores/businesses are responsible for the snow removal, but it would be nice to see follow up by the RE as to the answer for this. What I would like to know is who is responsible for clearing the sidewalks by Eagle Ridge apartments and the Mayo Health System hospital all.
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