Failure to Clear Sidewalks by HOA & Resident

Mike-
I just drive up Chickacoan from Truro Parish to Broadlands Blvd. All the common area walks I saw were cleared. I called Wes and he was pretty sure they were all cleared by yesterday.
The only walks I noticed that weren't clear were homeowner responsibility. Note that the houses that have the sidewalk behind their house are the responsibility of the homeowner to clear.
Broadlands Blvd is typically the last one cleared, for two reasons:
The sidewalk is so close to the street that when the street is plowed, it buries the sidewalk, making it extremely difficult to clear.
No homes open onto Broadlands Blvd, so it is not as important as interior common area walks.
Please let me know SPECIFICALLY where common area walks on Chickacoan are not clear. I may have missed it.

 

I too lived in NH for several years and I never saw ice like this. Believe me, I would much rather shovel 2 feet of then this thick ice.

pgamike - did you live in NH in 98? Now there was an ice storm of epic porportions! And honestly, did you have your driveway and sidewalk shoveled the next day? I doubt many did.

 

I didn’t mean to insult the work of our volunteer board. In fact, if you are happy with the efforts of the contractor, and that you feel that their performance was satisfactory, I will have to trust your judgment. You are certainly closer to the situation than I.

 

Not that I know a whole lot about snow removal, but around my street (specifically Vestals/DeMott) the contractor used a small bulldozer to clear the sidewalks. The bulldozer was larger than the sidewalk and they ended up ripping up grass and dirt on both sides of the sidewalk. To me, they clearly don't have the right tools for the job.

 

Mike-
I am not insulted at all. I would like to reask my question: where on Chickacoan Trail are there common area walks that weren't cleared?

 

Just thought this thread might enjoy knowing that you could have had Van Metre plow your streets. I live in the new SW Townhomes and Van Metre plowed using a front end loader which placed all the snow into 4 foot tall ice piles located on each corner of each intersection, directly on top of the sidewalk! Needless to say no one on our street has even attempted to clear them.

 

and on my street Van Metre plowed all the snow and ice into nice mountains in front of and up agains the mail boxes... which means that I have been unable to get mail delivered for over a week now!!! Nice. And the Van Metre site superviser has been "unable" to call me back. Nice.

As a follow-up in reporting progress - Van Metre did come back to move the snow pile to another location, away from our mail boxes... just took a few days and call...

 

Cliff,
I don't want to start it up again, but ya asked.

The walks are now clear on "Chick". When I drove up Broadlands Blvd earlier in the afternoon, it was still covered.

I guess that I while I certainly expected it to take longer than normal for the walks to be cleared (not the trails), I wasn't expecting for it to take until today. (And there were trucks and mini-front loaders everywhere today).

What I was trying to point is that there are some possible issues with the contractor. I saw very little evidence of his work in "my neck of the woods" for the 2-3 days immediately after the storm. Admittedly, I am just guessing at some possible scenarios:
a) He was working at other sites
b) He wasn't willing to struggle with the ice, and waited for it to get soft with the warmer weather (It would have been expensive for him to put a bunch of employees out there to break up the ice (by hand) on the miles of walks in our subdivision)
c) He either has the insufficient manpower or equipment to handle a large job like this.
That's it in a nutshell. If I had seen some evidence of his continuing struggle to clear our walks, even if it had been unsuccessful, I would not have said a word!
BTW, great collection of smilies on this site! opcorn2:

 

It is true that my canine friend, Tahoe, and I walk the streets of Broadlands and that she uses these walks to deposit waste. Please note that I pick up after her. Indeed, I pick up litter as we go - including the waste of other dogs. This is why the sidewalks are so important to us.

I am reminded of the following story about Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his canine friend, Fala.

"In 1944, Fala was with the President on a sea trip to the Aleutian Islands. Rumors spread that Fala was accidentally left on one of the islands. During the 1944 presidential campaign, the Republicans accused him of spending millions of taxpayers' dollars in sending a destroyer back for him. The President answered the attack in his famous Fala speech while talking to the Teamsters Union. Roosevelt defended his Scottie, saying, that he, Roosevelt, expected such criticism aimed at himself, and that even his family expected negative talk about themselves. However, Fala had not been the same. Since the charge was made: "His Scotch soul was furious." "

 

I guess PGA Mike must have been lying about the walks not being cleared on Chickacoan Trail and Broadlands blvd. He must have made his posts just to stir up people for no reason.

Seriously, if homeowner has some concerns about common areas being cleared promptly, I don't think that those who work hard to represent us should just ask him to volunteer his labor and machinery to clear what is in the HOA budget to be maintained by for profit companies. Ask to volunteer ones organization abilities and time, maybe, but maybe not hard labor and machinery.

I appreciate the work that Donna et al do, (I really do) but lets not always just say take care of it yourself when someone has an issue.

 

12-12-2005, 08:47 AM
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Clearing your sidewalks is required by Virginia and Loudoun County codes. There's an article about it on page 5 of the latest Newsletter. Snow must be removed within 6 hours of the end of the snowfall. If it falls overnight, it must be removed by noon the next day. Failure to comply will result in a $250 fine by the county.

I just thought that this was an interesting post, from 14 months ago.

 

I have lived here for almost 4 years and I have neighbors who NEVER clear their sidewalks. My question is, who or what department in the County should be contacted so they can notifiy these people that their sidewalks need to be cleared.

 

Loudoun County Building and Development Department.