A downtown business owner said he’s not breaking his snowblower for the town’s “incompetence.”
Randy Crossen owns a business on Covert Street in Cobourg and said when the snowplows go by after a heavy snowfall they completely cover the sidewalks all along the street.
There is no boulevard along the street, so there is no place for the business owners to put the snow.
“The snow is now stuck and I don’t know how we’re going to remove it or where we are going to put it.”
Crossen showed how packed the snow has settled in by standing on what would be the sidewalk, but was a mound of snow stretching the length of the street from Division to George Street.
Although Cobourg hasn’t received a great amount of snow over the last few years, Crossen said after he contacted the town the last time it happened, they turned the blades of the plows to the south side which allowed the snow to be piled by the Covert Street parking lot.
“They did it for a couple of times, then I think they forgot about the solution.”
Crossen said he doesn’t have an issue with the snow itself, it’s just he has no where to put it after a large snowfall. Compounding the problem is when the plows go by and add more to it.
“Turn the plow the other way or remove the snow. Don’t just put it on the sidewalk and on business owner’s property.”
Using a snowblower, Crossen made a small path leading into his business that he said took him 15-minutes.
“I’m not going to break my snowblower over the town’s incompetence.”
Reaching out, Director of Public Works, Laurie Wills stated, “We certainly appreciate all suggestions from residents, however, in regards to the snow clearing on Covert Street our plows cannot drive the wrong way on a one-way street in order to deposit snow on the south side of the road.”
“The front plow can direct a smaller amount of snow to the left side, however it is the wing on the right side that is functionally designed to move heavier amounts of snow. Due to the massive amount of snowfall that occurred during Monday’s snow storm it was not possible for our plows to move all of the snow to the south side due to the sheer volume.”
“It should also be noted that Town staff will be clearing snow off the Covert Street sidewalk, when an overnight downtown snow removal is conducted, which has been tentatively scheduled for this coming Thursday at midnight, weather permitting.”
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
